


Star Wars - Enter The Void

by AvatarVader



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: AU with canon, OC Galore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-16
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2018-09-24 23:25:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 30
Words: 34,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9791756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvatarVader/pseuds/AvatarVader
Summary: Ahsoka Tano was the Chosen one's Padawan, one of the best of her generation and the Commander of one of the republic's greatest Legions - But what would happen if her past comes back from behind the shadows and threatens to tear the Republic apart until all lay asunder. This is what happens when you steal something and the victim wants it back.





	1. The War

When will this blasted war ever end?

When hundreds of stars stop turning into dust.

When the blood of thousands stop running.

When.

When.

Honestly, I don’t want to think about it.

About the suffering that this war brings.

I just focus on the mission.

Protect the Republic, defeat the Separatists and stop the Sith.

Simple.

Heh, if only.

Well atleast I can fulfil said mission with the best of the best by my side.

That would be my boys in the 501st, led by one Captain Rex, a personal friend of mine.

We would often team up with Commander Cody and the 212th battalion.

One of the main reasons why we would team up was because of the friendships between the two battalions Jedi Generals, General Obi-wan Kenobi and my master, Anakin Skywalker.

You see I didn’t introduce myself, my names Ahsoka Tano, and I'm a Togruta female if you must know.

I’m a Padawan, a member of the Jedi Order, protectors of the innocent and defenders of the light side of the force.

What has the order become?

The Jedi aren’t meant to fight wars.

When will this war end?

When.

When.


	2. A New mission

“Commander?” a voice called.

“Huh?” Ahsoka questioned, startled from being pulled from her thoughts and back into reality, turning her head right to see that it was Captain Rex, in full armour except for his helmet, which was buckled onto his belt on his right side.

“Uh, are you alright Commander?” He asked, unsure of what to else to say.

Shaking her head as if to clear her thoughts, she responds. “I’m alright Rex, just thinking about some stuff right now. What is it?”

“General’s Skywalker and Kenobi are requesting your presence on the bridge, Commander; apparently we’ve already received new orders.” Rex responded, before continuing, somewhat hesitantly. “That is of course if you’re done with your injuries.”

They were in the medbay, which was currently filled with injured clones from the fighting on the planet Deemarn, a Separatist world where the local populace supported them and of apparent ‘vital importance’ she had heard.

“It’s just a minor blast wound, Rex, don’t worry I’ll live.” She assured her clone friend.

“Of course sir, I didn’t mean to assume...” He started.

“Relax Rex, its fine.” She assured him, chuckling slightly at his attempt of an apology, before starting to walk towards one of the lifts that would take them to the bridge, Rex following closely behind her.

He worries as much as Skyguy, but with less of an understanding of humour or sarcasm she thought.

I don’t understand all of the fuss, it’s not a serious blaster wound.

And she was quite right; it wasn’t serious at all given the circumstances, it only hitting her left shoulder, which was now bandaged.

She did, however, remember the cause of the wound well.

“Cover our flanks! Cover our flanks!” Captain Rex cried.

They were in a series of trenches, its complexity unrivalled, and the local populace were fighting as if there was no tomorrow.

She was on the left flank, helping the dwindling number of clone troopers to cope against the seemingly never-ending waves of enemies from being overwhelmed.

It seemed like they would be able to pull through when a call of alarm heralded nothing but bad news for the defenders.

“Grenade! Get down!” A clone, ‘Lucky’ Ahsoka realised, cried out before a green blaster bolt silenced him permanently. 

A great BOOM soon followed and then silence filled the trenches.

That silence soon gave way to sharp ringing noise that filled the ears of the 16 year old Padawan and the distant noises of the ongoing battle.

The dirt had greeted her with open arms when the grenade had exploded inside the trench, she had thought to herself as she forced her tired bones to stand once again, looking as she did so at how a group of the local Deemarnians had broken through the clone ranks, cutting down any unlucky clone as they did so.

She ran forward, her two lightabers humming with life, as she waded through the group, cutting them down as they did to her clone troopers, never stopping her offensive against the enemy.

She heard the blast before it hit her, before a bright spasm of pain shot through her shoulder and a brief cry tore through her mouth and stopping her momentum.

As she turned to meet her foe, the Deemarnian attempted to fire again, his shots only hitting dirt as Ahsoka leapt up to him and sunk her blades of light deep into his chest, watching his face as the light went out of his eyes.

“Commander?” Rex questioned, and it was then that Ahsoka realised that she hadn’t heard what the Captain had said.

“Oh sorry, go on Captain.” Ahsoka said, attempting to cover up her lapse of attention, to no avail if the look that Rex was giving her was any indication.

“Are you sure you’re alright Commander?” He asked.

“Yes Rex” She responded, sighing, before giving up an explanation “Just tired, that’s all.”

“If you say so Commander.” He said, ending the conversation as the lift opened and gave way to the bridge.

Her master, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-wan Kenobi, turned around at the sound of the doors opening to greet the teenage Padawan.

“Ahsoka, are you alright?” Anakin asked his concern obvious in his voice.

 “Yes, you gave Anakin here quite the fright, my dear.” Obi-wan joked as he gave her a kind smile.

“As I’ve told Rex over here, I’m fine, it’s just a minor little problem.” She responded with a humorous tone to her voice and a smile on her face.

“If we could get back to the matter at hand my friends.” A voice called out from behind the trio.

It was Master Mace Windu, displayed by the hologram projector, with a slight frown on his face from apparently being interrupted.

“Yes Master Windu, please continue.” Obi-wan responded, quickly bringing back the matter at hand.

Nodding his thanks to Obi-wan, Windu continued “Two weeks ago, three Republic cruisers pursued a Separatist ship after ambushing them in the Norda system, we have not heard from them since.”

A sudden silence filled the bridge and any humour that was left between the Jedi evaporated at the end of the sentence.

“Was it the Separatists?” Anakin asked.

“We don’t know, in fact we don’t know anything that could have happened to them apart from where they went.” Windu replied, his face as stoic as ever.

“Where did they go?” Ahsoka asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

“That’s where it gets interesting.” Windu began, with everyone’s curiosity reaching a fever pitch “They went into the Unknown Regions.”

“That is certainly interesting. Why would the Seppies go there, it’s a black hole of unknowns?” Anakin asked, confusion evident in his face.

“From what we can gather they were heading into the Unknown Regions anyway before the Republic cruisers attacked.”

“What do you want us to do?” Obi-wan asked, getting straight to the matter at hand.

“Your fleet shall enter the Unknown Regions, with support from Jedi Master Luminara Unduli’s fleet, to find out what happened to our ships and why the Separatists wanted to go there in the first place.” Windu summarised.

“Understood, Master.” Anakin concluded, before the hologram flickered out from existence.

Another day, another mission.


	3. Friends

“Calm down Snips, a Jedi doesn’t jump up and down on the spot.” Anakin jokingly said to her, a soft smile on the corner of his lips as the elevator continued down to the hanger.

“I’m not jumping up and down thank you very much, I’m merely happy to see Barriss again.” Ahsoka replied, an excited look on her face.

“It’s been ages since I’ve seen her and no offence master but everyone on this ship is older than me.” She continued.

“Tell that to the Clones.” Her master muttered under his breath as the elevator doors opened before them.

As they walked through the large hanger bay, the master and apprentice duo soon came across another pair of Jedi who were walking towards them.

Both Jedi were female Mirialan, with their green skin and facial tattoos being obvious proof of that fact and both wore long dark robes and headdresses.

Whilst the tallest of the pair retained her regal dignity in both stature and expression upon seeing them the smaller woman, obviously near the same age as Ahsoka, brightened with a near excited, yet slightly timid, smile on her face.

“Master Unduli, it’s good to see you again.” Anakin greeted, a small bow signifying her status as a Jedi master.

“It is good to see you too, Master Skywalker, if only it was in better circumstances. I know Barriss here was happy to see the pair of you again.” She replied, smiling a small yet polite smile in their direction.

“Now to the matter at hand.” Unduli continued walking towards the lift with Anakin by her side, the two padawans whispering to each other as the Masters spoke about the mission.

“It’s good to see you again Barriss.” Ahsoka whispered excitedly, a smile on her face.

“You too Ahsoka, It has been too long. This war has forced our meetings to become more grave and sparse.” She replied bitterly.

“Well atleast we can help end the war together, huh?” Ahsoka said, attempting to keep the mood light.

“I suppose so.” She replied quite sombrely.

“How long till we exit out of hyper space Master Skywalker?”  Luminara asked, forcing the two Padawans attention to turn to their masters.

“Not long now Master Unduli, a couple of minutes at most.” Anakin replied, sighing in the process.

“It won’t be long now, Skywalker, we’ll find out what happened to the ships.” Luminara attempted to soothe Anakin’s nerves.

“That’s what worries me.” He replies.

For the rest of the time in the lift, an uncomfortable silence filled the air, the nerves of the two teenage padawans more obvious than the masters, though they too were nervous at what they were going to face.

The doors finally opened once more, revealing a very tense command bridge, all inside of which were busying themselves with jobs and not what they are going to face.

“Haven’t seen them so tense before.” Ahsoka commented, concern in her voice.

“We are heading into the Unknown Regions, Padawan Ahsoka. That in itself is a reason to be nervous, let alone the fate of our missing ships.” Luminara noted.

Captain Rex alongside Admiral Yularen, the Admiral assigned to Skywalker’s flagship the Resolute, soon approached the Jedi, their untold nerves evident in their tension.

“General’s, “The admiral began “we’ll be exiting hyperspace in approximately 90 seconds.”

“Thank you, admiral. How long till General Kenobi’s flagship the Negotiator shows up?” Anakin asked.

“An hour, maybe two at most General.” The admiral quickly responded, clearly expecting the question.

A clone suddenly shouts out “Exiting hyperspace in 20 seconds!”

“Ok everyone let’s find out what happened to our ships.” Anakin sighed, getting ready for whatever they may find, looking out of the window with his hands behind his back.

Silence filled the bridge, no one dare making a sound, whilst the clone who had spoken earlier slowly called out.

“5...”

“4...”

“3...”

“2...”

“1...”

“Exiting hyperspace now!”  

It can’t be that bad, can it? Ahsoka thought to herself, hoping for the unlikely best.

She was wrong.

The silence continued but for an entirely different reason, everyone, Jedi and clone alike, simply staring at what was before them in shock.

“It’s a... graveyard.” Anakin muttered, the shock at what he was seeing stopping him from saying anymore.

Before the bridge was something no one wanted to see, yet all were seeing it.

All of the Republic ships that were missing were in front of them, all but destroyed with massive tears and cracks around their hull’s and seemingly dozens of pieces that belonged to them were floating aimlessly in the void of space, along with the frozen bodies of those unfortunate enough to be on board or to get blasted by any explosions.

It was chilling, the fact that space had become the void of death.

“How...?” Barriss started, shock and deep despair filling her face, the numbers of dead being huge.

“I don’t know Barriss but we’ll find out.” Ahsoka quickly responded, attempting to calm the visibly distraught Padawan.

“Could it have been the Separatists?” Captain Rex asked.

“No... The cruisers were hit from all sides; reports say that they were pursuing one Separatist ship so it couldn’t have been them.”

“Besides, the Separatist ship is there as well.” Unduli simply stated, pointing to a hologram projection of the ‘graveyard’ to a ship different in design slightly further ahead of the Republic’s.

“Who, or what, could have done this?” Ahsoka asked disbelief clear in her voice.

“We can ask whoever is on that ship Commander.” Captain Rex says, before pointing to another ship in the hologram, though this was merely the size of a small troop carrier ship.

“That’s a ship we haven’t seen before. Good eye Rex.” Anakin compliments, Rex merely nodding in recognition.

“Admiral, bring that ship in with a tractor beam.” Unduli quickly says, before walking back to the lift.

“Back to the hanger I guess.” Ahsoka mutters to herself.

It took several long minutes before the ship arrived in the hanger but when it did its design blew all present’s mind.

The ship was mostly coloured black and where unlike all other ships in both the Republic and Separatists, this one was large yet organic. 

Where sharp turns and corners would be there was only various curves instead. The ship completed itself with two large yet thin wings on either side of the ship, conveying the overall look of a hunting bird of prey.

“Rex, open it up.” Anakin asked, getting his lightsaber out as all the other Jedi did the same, watching as Rex and several other clones slowly pierced open the ramp of the ship, opening the inside up for all to see.

As everyone present went inside the strange ship, they were greeted by another self made graveyard, yet of a different kind as bodies upon bodies were revealed.

Some bodies were armoured from head to toe whilst others were dressed in ceremonial robes and on rare occasions there was a mixture of the two yet all were dead on the ground.

Lifeless.

“What happened here?” Ahsoka asked, shock in her voice once again.

I’m counting twenty atleast.

“I don’t know Snips but this only asks more questions than answers.” Anakin replied bitterly, a frown on his face as he started to walk out of the ship.

“Captain Rex, have the bodies sent to the medbay for examination and send for the technicians to see if there is anything on this ship salvageable.”

“Yes sir.” He replied, as he and everyone else present started to leave the vessel.

Once they had left however, something started to stir ever so softly.

A body.

A figure soon rose up from the ground, crouching as they did so.

The figure slowly but surely, taps something onto her arm and red light flickers to life.

They then speak, a female voice flowing through the air, whispering into her comm.

“Phase one successful. Phase two is now in effect. Operation Denmother continues.”

After that, she silently exits the ship, clear in her purpose of what she has to do.

After all, she has a mission to complete.


	4. Uneasy Feelings

It was dark in the vents.

That was what the female figure thought to herself a she crawled her way through the ventilation shafts, her form tight black suit and outer robes blending in to the darkness.

It wasn’t the dark that had her nervous. Hell, it wasn’t the clones on this parasite of a ship either.

It was the Jedi that had her attention. She could feel them, through the force. She could feel them in every fibre of her being.

Damn them, the scum. They just can’t stay where they are, could they.

As she continued onward she saw a faint light ahead.

It was an opening into a huge room, where one single metal beam shoots down in the middle of it, the female noticing how both the ceiling and floor were not visible and that there were multiple bridges connecting the sides of the room together.

She soon saw a strange device, bigger and wider than any normal person with multiple blue lights flickering in and out seemingly at random, in the middle of the metal beam where the two main bridges connected themselves onto the beam.

The assassin knew immediately what this device was, smiling under the mask.

The power generator, there you are.

She immediately walked her way towards it at a rapid pace, her body low to do its best at being seemingly invisible, before tapping rapidly at the console in front of the device, determination and purpose showing in her body language.

Almost there... and-

“Freeze!” A voice, stern and aggressive called out behind her, forcing her to turn her head around to see that it was nothing more than a mere clone who had raised his blaster towards her in a threatening posture.

“Turn. Slowly. And with your hands in the air.” He beckoned, with the robe wearing female complying as she slowly turned around to face the soldier, arms in the air as she was ordered, her unseen eyes staring into the clone’s very soul.

The clone started to speak into his comlink “Sir, I’ve got a situation here. There’s an-” As he started to speak however, the assassin quickly sprang at him, seeing her opportunity, grappling him so as to drop his gun whilst she tensed her arms, putting pressure on the clone’s neck so as to stop him breathing, the clone himself furiously trying to get out of the hold with his arms flailing around, trying to gain a grasp on the assassin.

Before he could however, the girl quickly snapped his neck with a very loud Crack, silencing him forever.

Dropping the body onto the ground, she quickly pressed a multitude of buttons on both her comlink and that of the clones, whose superior was attempting to communicate to.

“Trooper! Trooper, answer me! What is it?” The voice on the other end of the line shouted, anger and panic edging into his voice.

“False alarm sir” The assassin quickly replied, only the voice that came out of her helmet was not hers but of the deceased clones “Got spooked, that was all.”

“Well don’t give me a panic attack when you do, trooper! Understand?” The voice asked angrily.

“Yes sir.” She replied before ending the conversation.

Simpletons she thought, before hurling both the recently deceased corpse and his weapon over the bridge and into the seemingly ongoing abyss with ease, moving back towards the field generator.

Once finished with what she had done, the female assassin walked back calmly to where the opening in the ventilation shaft was on the wall,  getting into it and crawling an unknown distance away from the power generator, before stopping and pulling out a trigger-like device from her belt within her robes.

Not long now she thought.

Tick Tock.

Tick Tock.

~ ~ ~

“Are you alright, Ahsoka?” Her friend Barriss asked concern clear in her voice as she leaned on her bed, similar to Ahsoka’s own bed that was next to hers with the owner of the bed sitting up straight on it, a frown on her face as she faced her friend.

“I don’t know” She replied, confusion evident in her voice “I just have this uneasy feeling, its coming from the force.”

“Are you sure? It could just be are nerves Ahsoka.” Barriss replied, attempting to clear her close friend’s worries.

Before Ahsoka could reply, a thunderous explosion could be heard, distant from the padawans yet close enough for them to feel the floor shake.

The lights suddenly went out after the explosion, with red lights coming on a couple of minutes later, indicating that the ship was on its backup generator, and with sirens sounding off in every room and corridor on ship, including the girls.

Ahsoka, worry and a single thread of fear on her face, replied with her voice shaking:

“I’m sure.”


	5. The Message

“What happened?” Anakin shouted out in anger, his face a mask of pure frustration as he looked at everyone surrounding him.

“Our Power Generator exploded General. From what we can tell from its remains it had been rigged to blow as soon as given the command from a trigger device.” Rex replied in a matter of fact tone, his face calm and steady despite the circumstances.

“Also one of our troopers reported in that he had apparently had a situation before cutting out for a couple of minutes and then saying that it was a false alarm. That happened just before the power generator blew up and he has been reported missing sir.” He continued.

“This means that whoever did this also killed our clone.” Luminara stated her eyes looking at her Jedi companions.

“How could this have happened?” Ahsoka asked disbelief clear in her voice.

They had gathered in one of the command centre’s that was on the ship, normally used for debriefings or during a military campaign, with its large table sized hologram projector in the middle of the room and everyone present around it, all of them nervous.

“Sir.” Rex suddenly asked, gaining Anakin’s attention, the Jedi nodding for him to continue.

“I’ve just got word from the medbay. When the unknown ship arrived in the hanger we scanned it for bodies and found that there were twenty-three bodies on the ship. One of the medics has just told me that they only received twenty-two.” He continued, his words stopping all possible chatter going on in the room.

Anakin sighed. “How long till Obi-wan’s fleet gets here Rex?” He asked.

“An hour, sir.”

“Great. Captain order all military personnel on this ship to start sweeping every part of this ship for an unknown assailant. Make sure that they take this person in alive.” He concluded, rubbing his eyes in the process from his lack of sleep.

“Yes sir.” He replied walking out of the room as the rest of Jedi started to do so as well, ready to assist in the searching process.

A couple of minutes passed as the group walked out of the room and continued down the corridor, their nerves on high alert, when Ahsoka heard it.

A sound that would have been impossible to hear if it wasn’t for her species heightened senses.

A noise that had come from the Command Centre they had all just been in a couple of minutes ago.

“Uh Master, I think I forgot my commlink. I’ll be back in a sec.” She asked, causing her master to chuckle slightly.

“Alright Ahsoka go on. Now’s not the time to be forgetful though.”

“Don’t worry it won’t happen again.” She replied as she headed back, her curiosity compelling her to check it out.

What was that noise? She thought to herself as she reached the door.

Her unsaid question was answered as soon as she opened the door when as she walked in she came face to face with the assailant in question.  
Silence filled the room as both the assailant, a female Ahsoka realised, and her simply stared at each other, neither making a move. As if both were hoping that by not moving, the person opposite them would disappear.

Ahsoka started to take in the sight of this woman. Her face was hidden due to the helmet she was wearing over it, a spherical dome that looked as if it was visor in its entirety, the polished surface that had no other features except its smooth, hard surface coming down until it reached to where her mouth should be, covering her eyes and nose in the process. Her mouth itself was covered by some sort of voice projector, completely opposite to the surface above it by having multiple points sticking out, similar to a breathing device that some of the clones would use.

She wore a set of armour, black in colour, over her chest and gauntlets over her arms and legs. Robes covered her back and went over her arms, with the robes ending where her knees were, though at that point the robe was cut in half it looked like from the end of her back to her knees so as to allow a greater freedom of movement.

Not a single piece of skin was showing, Ahsoka realised, as well as seeing that she had been taping away at one of the consoles in the room before being interrupted.

This thought broke the spell that had been controlling her, with Ahsoka suddenly attempting to run out the door and get backup in the form of her master.

That would have been what she had done, if it wasn’t for the fact that this assassin not shot the console that locked the door before Ahsoka could get out, trapping her inside.

~ ~ ~

Ahsoka’s taking a while. I wonder what’s keeping her.

That was what Anakin was thinking as he and the rest of the group were walking down another corridor.

Feels like a maze, sometimes.

The tense silence was broken however when everyone heard the familiar sound of blaster fire, Anakin one of the first to turn towards the direction that the sound came from.

“That came from the Command Centre.” He whispered, realisation kicking in as he suddenly started to run, hoping that it was not too late.

~ ~ ~  

Her lightsabers out, Ahsoka slowly walked back to the spot that she had been in, glaring at her opponent.

The female had sprung out a blaster pistol, and was aiming at the Padawan as she moved.

“So, what happens now?” Ahsoka asked, staring at woman with deadly seriousness.  
                                                  
“Isn’t it obvious? You die.” She responded, a slightly synthesised voice replied though still sounding like a female, before opening fire on Ahsoka who quickly dodged out of the way, attempting to move closer towards the assassin in an attempt to strike her down.

The assassin for her part dodged her attacks every time, ducking under them and jumping over them with relative ease, all the while still firing at Ahsoka.

Ahsoka suddenly, to her opponents surprise, force pushes her into the wall before, with the aid of the force, rushing towards her and attempting to sink both of her lightsabers into her chest.

The assassin, seeing her future fate, ducks to the side just as the lightsabers sink into the wall where she just was, before seizing her opportunity and striking the bandaged shoulder of Ahsoka with her elbows repeatedly, drawing out a cry of pain from Ahsoka.

Tossing her blaster aside, the assassin continued to strike multiple blows on the Padawan with what appeared to be every part of her body from hands to kicks to knees and to elbows, using her taller her frame and her superior strength to her advantage.

Her situation turning desperate, Ahsoka quickly as a last ditch effort tackles the assassin with the aid of the force down onto the ground, both of her lightsabers forming an X as she holds them to the assassins throat, who is desperately holding the pair of lightsabers off by holding Ahsoka’s arms and attempting to push them away, to no avail.

“Give up.” Ahsoka murmurs in between breaths, the mixture of pain and exhaustion playing a key role.

“No.” She replies before, to Ahsoka’s surprise, using the force to push her arms away from her throat.

It was only for a couple of seconds but it was enough for the assassin to take advantage.

Ahsoka heard the hmm of a lightsaber before she saw it, its yellow glow vibrant as the assassin strikes out at her, narrowly missing the Togruta’s head, and with a flip gets back to her feet, striking as soon as she was standing, her curved hilt giving her more traction against the Padawan.

She’s a force user! Ahsoka thought in disbelief. And she can use a lightsaber.

As the assassin continued her offense, attacking and counterattacking with ease, Ahsoka realised to her horror that her style of fighting was similar to that of a certain Count’s.

A Makashi fighter. No wonder her footwork is second to none.

The offense was too much for Ahsoka as the female sprung a surprising counter to her left side and forcing Ahsoka to her knees.

“I told you.” She says as she holds the tip of the saber to Ahsoka’s throat. “No matter how good you are today. You’ll still die.”  
Before she could deliver the finishing blow, a sudden viscous sound filled their ears that seemed to resonate from behind the locked door.

“What in the world–” she asks confusion clear in her voice despite the artificial monotone from her helmet.

Before she could say anymore the door in question suddenly explodes, its hinges broken as it is thrown towards the assassin due to the explosion, hitting her with full force and flinging her to wall.

Ahsoka looks up to see the familiar sight of her master, Master Unduli and Barriss standing in front of her, a number of clones led by Captain Rex behind them who quickly surround the limp form of the assassin.

“You alright?” Anakin asks as he pulls his Padawan to her feet.

“Hurting but otherwise fine Master.” She replies, a small smile on her face as blood starts to run down her face from her nostrils.

“We’ll get you patched up Ahsoka, don’t worry about that.”

Before their conversation could continue a shout ran out as several clones are flung backwards and into the walls.

Before they could react the assassin, her mask shattered from the impact of the door which reveals a single green eye, rushes through the clones and quickly presses a single button on the console she was using earlier before tearing it apart with the help of the force, finally falling into unconsciousness when she is hit repeatedly with stun blasts from several of the clones, dropping to the ground with a heavy thud.

“What did she do?” Luminara asks, worry and sudden panic showing in her voice.

“We don’t know General, she destroyed the console. Whatever she did we can’t stop it.” Rex replied, setting his helmet to the side as he took in the sight of the destroyed console.

“General Skywalker do you copy?” the familiar voice of Admiral Yularen calls out through Anakin’s commlink.

“I’m here Admiral what is it?” Anakin says, fearing he won’t get a good answer.

“For some reason our ship is transmitting an unknown signal into space and we can’t decrypt it. Any reason for that?” he asked though he knew that it wasn’t their doing.

“You can blame that for our saboteur, who is unconscious as we speak. Is there anything else Admiral?”

“Yes. Whilst we can’t stop the signal we can tell whether somebody is receiving or not. Unfortunately we can confirm that something or someone is receiving.” He concluded with an audible sigh.

“Understood. Make sure our defences are up Admiral. I don’t like this.” Anakin replied before shutting off the transmission, a worried frown on his face.

“That means...” Barriss realised.

“She sent a message. And whoever sent her has answered.” Ahsoka finished her friend’s statement, looking at the limp form of the girl that tried to kill her.


	6. The Interrogation

The cell was cold, dark and filled with that sense of dread that you have to feel for yourself to fully understand it.

A barrier separated them.

From her.

Every one of them knew that she couldn’t get through it, she included, but there was something wrong with this picture.

The being that was sitting in front of a metal table, handcuffed with force preventive handcuffs, who should have been terrified and ashamed that she had been caught and stuffed into that cold, hard room, wasn’t.

In fact she seemed quite comfortable with her surroundings, a calm and serene smile on her face whilst she closed her eyes as if falling asleep.

It was the first time Ahsoka was able to have a first proper look at her would be killer’s face. She had a pale complexion to her face and a small nose that some would say was ‘cute’. The assassin had dark, red hair that added a sense of wildness within her, long and sleek that just went past her shoulders.  
How she kept all of that hair in that helmet she wore Ahsoka would never know.

A faint yet audible scar was on her face, adding to her attractiveness instead of taking away, that went from the tip of her chin through the right side of her mouth and ending at her cheek.

Stitches also covered part of her forehead, stopping any more blood from seeping out from where she had been hit from the door, having been taken care of by medics whilst she was unconscious.

“Padawan Ahsoka, are you listening to me?” Luminara asked with an inquisitive brow.

“Sorry Master Unduli, I was just distracted. It won’t happen again.” Ahsoka replied quickly, nervous at being perceived as rude as well as because of the being mere metres away from her.

“That’s alright my dear it’s not surprising after what you just went through. I merely said that you should let me and Master Skywalker do the talking.” She replied, a kind smile on her face lit with understanding.

“If you’re sure master, then I understand.” Ahsoka mumbled slightly, a low bow made in resignation.

“Good. Come along Skywalker, we’ve much to discuss with our guest.” And with that she walked forward, the barrier momentarily lowered to allow both Jedi to enter, Anakin showing a kind smile towards Ahsoka before following behind his fellow Jedi.

Ahsoka knew how this interrogation should go. Master Unduli being the sympathetic, kind interrogator and Anakin being the harsh, near no temper interrogator. Which anyone the girl would break under didn’t matter as long as she broke but Ahsoka wasn’t so sure.

This girl’s different.

“May we know your name?” Unduli asked politely and calmly, attempting to gain her trust.

Nothing. Silence as the girl did not say a word, her smile gone but her eyes still closed.

Coughing slightly to herself, Unduli tried a different topic. “Why did you sabotage our ship? What was the purpose of doing that?”

Nothing again. Her silence deafening, Ahsoka could tell that her master was becoming more agitated by the second.

“I suggest you speak girl. Master Unduli is a much kinder Jedi than I.” Anakin said with gritted teeth due to the continued silence of their prisoner.

“Yet you are both still Jedi and therefore I shall say nothing to you.” The girl, her words a sign of defiance yet were said in a soft manner, replied with her eyes still shut.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Anakin said with annoyance, only for her to resume her passage of silence, increasing his agitation towards her.

Master Unduli, seeing as how this was getting them nowhere and that Anakin was agitated, decided to make her way back out of the cell, Anakin by her side, before being stopped by the assassin.

“I will speak to the Togrutan girl though.”

Silence once again but for a different reason, the masters looking shocked at both Ahsoka and the girl.

“I’ll do it if you want me to Masters.” Ahsoka cut in before they said a word, curiosity slowly seeping in to her mind about this unknown.

“Why do you want to speak to her?” Anakin asked, his protective habits for his Padawan kicking in.

“She’s the only one I have any measure of respect for on this ship.” The girl replied, her words sharp as intended, her voice light and soft despite itself.

“How come?” Anakin pressed.

“She’s not dead.” Was his only reply.

Nodding to Master Unduli, both Masters allowed Ahsoka to go forward and sit on the chair opposite of the girl.

Ahsoka’s mind was in shambles. She didn’t know what to say, blurting out the first thing that came into her mind, immediately regretting it.

“What’s your name?”

“Kaylin.” Was the reply, the assassins eyes finally opening to reveal two pairs of sharp green eyes that could look straight through a person.

“Why did you come here?” Ahsoka asked, regaining some confidence as she did so.

“The first step.” Kaylin replied, her eyes staring deep into Ahsoka’s own.

“Of what?”

“The beginning.” She answered with coy smile.

“Of?” Ahsoka pressed, her own annoyance starting to come through.

“The end.”

Ahsoka sighed to herself, rubbing the back of her head as she did so, due to her not being able to figure out what the girl was getting at.

What’s with the riddles, its Master Yoda all over again!

Before she could say anything else, Kaylin spoke to the Togrutan.

“He’s coming you know, my Master.” She said with a soft smile on her face, a knowing look visible as well.

Ahsoka seized the rope that had been given to her and began to tug, saying. “Why? Why is he coming here? For us?” She pressed.

“Partly, yes. He’s coming to get me of course but he also wants something from all of you as well. Do you want to know what he wants?” She asked her voice filled with a dark sense of glee, whispering at the end of her sentence as she leaned forward.

“What does he want from us?”

Kaylin replies, with an excited smile. “Your deaths.”

The assassin pressed on, seeing Ahsoka’s face horrified at the prospect, standing up as she does so. “He’s going to kill you all. No one will survive. Not you, not your precious master, nobody!” She now shouts out at her.

Oh my... who are you? Ahsoka thinks to herself, horrified at the absolute lack of mercy this unknown being has.

“I say this, little girl.” Kaylin says tauntingly, almost gloating at what is going to happen. “If you want to survive then I suggest you do one thing. RUN!”

A sudden alarm starts to go off, red lights flashing, causing Kaylin to laugh in a dark and twisted manner.

“You can’t even do that. He is here. He is coming. Prepare yourself Jedi, prepare everyone on this ship. This is the end of you all.” She howls at them, her voice clear through the alarm, Anakin and Luminara barely maintaining any sense of calm, Barriss’ face showing that of what it must be to be in a nightmare and Ahsoka simply staring, a look of horror and confusion on her face, at the assassin.

But why??!! Why is he doing this to us?

She could not dwell on it however, Anakin pushing her out of the cell and towards one of the lifts; she needed to focus on whoever this master is.

Because if not then they’re all going to die.


	7. Hunting

The alarms kept ringing as the Jedi made their way to the bridge, the crew showing signs of distress but still keeping their cool despite the situation.

“Admiral Yularen report. What’s happened?” Anakin asked as he reached the main holoprojector, the Admiral turning his attention to the general as he spoke.

“An unknown ship has dropped out of hyperspace. Slightly bigger than this cruiser and almost certainly carrying a bigger punch than anything we can dish out if our scans are any indication.” He replied, the gray haired man quickly turning on the projector to give the Jedi a better understanding of the ship.

If anything Ahsoka thought, it’s impressive.

The ship was menacing in appearance, black as the night and sprouting symbols on its hull that no one had ever seen before, the ship itself consisting of a large cylinder shape with what appeared to be metal beak, a dark red look to it, lightly pointing downward along with two thin fins on either side of the ship, roughly originating from in the middle.

“Is it moving forward to attack Admiral?” Unduli asked, her thoughts her calculating.

“No not yet General. Its weapons and defences are primed but it has made no move to face us.” Before the Admiral could continue a clone suddenly shouted out.

“4 troop carrier ships coming in fast, sir, with fighter escorts!”

“Can we send out our fighters in response?” Ahsoka asked.

“No. With the power generator down we can’t open up our hanger doors to release them.” He replied with a sigh, coming to the same conclusion as the Jedi beside him.

We’re dead in space.

The fighters and troop carriers were too fast for the cruiser’s turrets to shoot down, landing on the ship’s hull and starting to cut through the ship, attempting to gain control of the hanger bay once finished.

~ ~ ~   
Corporal Lance was like most men in the army a clone and a member of the 501st. He was proud of it too. The clone was a grizzled veteran, being one of the first clones to land in Geonosis at the start of the Clone Wars. He has the scars to prove it too if the entire left side of his face being burnt wasn’t an indication enough.

He could see that this new enemy were close to getting in the hanger, if the sounds of breaking steel were any indication on the ceiling.

“Right you measly lot! We’ve got some uninvited visitors coming to greet us in the only way they know how! I believe we should greet them right back the only way WE know how! Are you with me?” He shouted out to the rest of his men, most of them a new batch that had recently been brought in only a mere week ago, to which the rest of the men shouted out their agreement with swift precision.

Silence followed then, the only noises being the short breaths of each of the clones and the cutting of the steel. Lance knew that the noise the enemy are making is also their attempt at psychologically breaking the men’s morale. Lance however relished it for when that noise stopped then the fighting will begin.

Weapons and heads looking up, they waited with held breath, waiting for it all to begin.

And then the noise stopped and four large circles opened up in the ceiling, the metal that once were there now falling down to floor with a large clang!

To the corporal’s surprise there was no movement up above from the enemy, no sound for that matter.

Nothing.

Before he could question this however, four small canisters fell down the holes and into the heart of the clone’s ranks. Lance’s eyes widened when he realised what they were.

Grenades.

Shouts and screams soon rang out as soon as the grenades exploded before yellow blaster bolts suddenly started to shower down from the ceiling, dark armoured soldiers jumping down to face the clones and continue their advantage.

Lance knew, despite his attempts at rallying the remainder of his men, that the battle had been lost as soon as they got through. This fact was proven even more so when, as Lance was commanding a tactical retreat through the nearby corridors, he saw to his horror that the enemy had force users of their own after witnessing a behemoth of a man in dark armour plating similar to his other comrades charge forward and cut down Lance’s men, his red lightsaber being used as a bludgeoning tool.

We need to get out of here.

Lance turned around to see the last of his men getting out of the hanger bay and into the corridor, running towards them to get out of the hanger himself.

That would have been what would have happened if he hadn’t of been shot in the back, falling to the ground from the pain and the sheer number of bolts that had hit him.

“Sir!” He vaguely heard one of the men shout out, Bucky if he saw correctly, before attempting to heard back out into the battle-turned-massacre to get him.

“Seal the door!” Lance shouted back through gritted teeth, knowing that he was done for.

Before the clones could object, Lance with his blaster shoots the controls to the door, sealing it shut and locking the enemy out from the rest of the ship.

As he did so, Lance felt a shadow fall over him and looking up saw an armoured soldier, his helmet gone to reveal a fair skinned man with a large brown beard covering most of his face holding a blaster pistol and pointing it to his head.

“Looks like it’s not your day.” The stranger stated before pulling the trigger.

~ ~ ~

“We’ve lost the hanger.” Rex stated his mood sombre.

“I can see that Rex.” Anakin replied through gritted teeth, holding his face with his cybernetic hand, staring at the monitor that had shown all present the brief but astonishing massacre of the clones stationed to defend the hanger through one of the many camera’s that have been placed there.

“There are more force users than I expected. Three or four maybe but over twenty, thirty. Who are these people?” Barriss asked her disbelief at the sheer scale of force users plain to see.

“The better question that we should be asking is who is that man?” Unduli asked, pointing to a hooded figure, his face shrouded from their view and wearing a combination of robe and armour with symbols etched into them, jumping down from one of the holes in the ceiling only after the battle had finished.

“Coward.” Rex muttered to himself.

As they continued to watch it became evident that whoever this man was he was definitely the one in charge as each of the soldiers bowed their head towards him.

“Commander Daggen, report. What is our status?” the hooded man asked his voice metallic and artificial to which a man, surprisingly with no helmet on revealing a large brown beard, responded.

“My Dal’Kaveen, as you can see we have taken the hanger but the enemy have sealed all the entrances shut, including the elevators. For now we are stuck here sir.” He replied, his voice gruff and deep.

“Prisoners?” 

“Fifteen survivor’s sir.” The Commander replied with a nod to the side, where fifteen injured but still alive clones, their hands cuffed behind their backs and their helmets removed from their heads.

The hooded man, almost casually with his hands behind his back, walks towards them, speaking as he does so.

“The first man who tells me what I want to know will live whilst your brothers will not. Any takers?” He asked, opening his arms wide before he continues.

“Thought not. Fine then we’ll start to shoot men until somebody talks.” And with that the hooded man quickly took out a blaster pistol from his side and shoots the closest clone to him in the head.

“Monster.” Ahsoka murmurs to herself.

“The Jedi will stop you!” A clone shouts out at the figure before one of the soldiers’ knees him in the stomach, only stopping when their leader holds up his hand and stands in front of the outspoken clone.

“And why is that? Because they are good people? I like to think I am a good man personally.” He starts before getting interrupted by the same clone in front of him.

“You’re not a good man, you’re a monster!” 

The figure, slowly, peels away his hood from his head, revealing a dark helmet with the only bright colours being the two yellow eye visors with the ends of them going downward in a straight line.

“You’re right; I’m not a good man. I’m just what’s left when all of the good men die.” He states before suddenly lashing out with his hand to strangle the clone, holding him up in the air.

“I should kill you.” Suddenly he drops him back to the ground, before placing his hand over the top of the clones head. “I won’t though, not yet anyway. I am going to do this though.”

To everyone’s horror, a dark cloud suddenly starts to escape the face of the clone, with him twitching and struggling to break out of the figures hold on his head. From his nose to his mouth and even from his eyes, the cloud sprouts out from the clone and submerging deep into the arm of the figure.

After a minute or so, the cloud dissipated and the figure lets go of what was left of the clones head, his deceased head being left with only a dried out skull before getting dropped to the ground and breaking apart.

“Right, now for the rest of you lot. You should be happy as I know all that I need to know from your friend over there. You’re all going to live!” He shouts out before continuing.

“However I have one rule when dealing with prisoners. The rule is that you all must be real, natural life forms. Daggen how do I see clones in that regard?” He asks, turning towards the grizzled commander.

“They’re not natural, sir.” He replies gruffly with a bow of the head.

The figure then looks at the line of prisoners, before starting with a raised hand:

“No. No they’re not.” Lowering his hand, the sudden cries of pain shout out when the captured clones get shot down by the enemy soldiers.  
The figure, stepping over the corpse of a random clone, then raises his blaster directly at the camera the Jedi were watching from.

Directly at us Ahsoka realised with horror.

“My apologies but we don’t like an audience.” And with that statement he shoots and the camera feed goes dark, along with all of the other cameras in the hanger.

“Who is this man?” Anakin asks the tiniest feelings of horror obvious on his face.

~ ~ ~

Daggen, upon seeing to it that all of the cameras have been destroyed, walks over to his lord who is himself walking towards one of the many ventilation shafts entrances, now open per his orders.

“Sir, what are your orders?” Daggen asks as he walks beside the figure.

“Open those doors Commander. Kill every single clone that stands in your way.”

“And what of you sir? What will you be doing whilst we do as you ask?” Daggen asks, wondering why his lord has opened up the entrance of the vents.

The Dal’Kaveen stops moving, his back to Daggen, before turning his head and says a simple word before going into the darkness of the vents, his robe and armour lost within it.

“Hunting.”


	8. The Battlefield

“These guys don’t give up, do they?” Anakin called out as he deflected a yellow bolt back down the corridor, killing one of the enemy soldiers that had previously fired at them with a strange rifle, his two eye visors sparking up with a sharp spike of yellow before suddenly turning a dark shade of grey as his body falls harshly to the floor.

“Considering that they’re boarded this ship to kill us, I wouldn’t think they would.” Luminara states dryly, ducking under a couple of yellow bolts as she speaks.

The two Jedi Masters were in one of the many battle contested corridors of the ship, where their mysterious enemy was pushing the clones to the brink. Anakin had to give it to these soldiers as some of the 501st clones fired back at the black armoured soldiers, whilst severely outnumbered and in enemy territory they were giving it to them with extreme aggression.

They’re good, I’ll give them that.

The battle raged on as the two sides’ fighting intensified, neither side being able to gain advantage despite the fact that two of the most renowned Jedi were helping in the battle.

However Anakin soon noticed two figures, wearing more robes than armour apart from their strange mask like helmets, two narrow green eye shaped visors surrounded by an otherwise light grey mask with various engravings on it, their robes a magnificent white with the edges an engraving of dark gold. The soldiers in front of them, whilst still firing at the Jedi and clones, soon gave the two hooded figures enough room to move past them, now standing in front of them all.

What the force is going on here? Anakin thought to himself, his face slowly growing more solemn as a tight knot of dread formed in his stomach.

The two figures suddenly with a great push from their bodies, through Anakin and Luminara as well as the rest of the clones back further down the corridor, before bringing out long almost staff-like handles from beneath their robes, simultaneously igniting them to reveal two dark yellow lightsabers before slowly advancing forward, the rest of the enemy soldiers following closely behind them all dead silent, resuming their fire against the Jedi and clones.

Anakin realised then that despite their attempts at holding them off, this corridor would soon be overrun. Turning towards Luminara he saw the same realisation spread across her face, a dark solemn look wash over her.

They looked at each other briefly then before nodding in silent agreement, Anakin signalling a controlled retreat.

“Rex!” Anakin shouts towards the Captain to his right. “We need to withdraw from this area! Get the men moving now!” Before starting to run towards the exit, Rex ordering the last of his men (A mere third of what was defending this corridor) through the exit themselves, the pair of staff wielding force users moving ever closer at a steady pace, showering small bursts of lightning upon the retreating clones.

The last of the clones finally getting through the large entrance, Anakin immediately locks it shut, the massive door closing just as the enemy soldiers made it to the door, before destroying the consoles, ensuing that the soldiers on the other side weren’t able to open it.

“Captain, barricade this door. Hold them off for as long as you can.” Anakin ordered as he walked past the remaining men, advancing towards the elevator to the bridge so as to find out how well the rest of the men all around the ship were faring with the enemy.

“We’ll be right on it sir!” Rex states before heading off to relay the new orders.

I hope Ahsoka and Barriss are having a better time than I am right now.

~ ~ ~

“I can’t believe we’ve been sent on guard duty.” Ahsoka angrily puffs to herself, her arms crossed as Barriss responds.

“Calm yourself Ahsoka, it won’t do any good if you get angry and lose focus. This is still an important job you know.”

“I know but I hate how we’re being treated as children and not helping out our masters defend the ship!” Ahsoka stubbornly retorts, breathing in deeply as she attempts to calm herself down, knowing that whilst she may not like it, Barriss was right in that she would be of better help with a calm and clear head.

“Too late now, we’re here.” Barriss concludes with a light smile as the elevator doors opened up, the two Padawans stepping inside to the prison cells, where their previous argument quickly fades away as they take in the sight in front of them.

The prison cells were decimated with the not so dry blood and corpses of the Clones that were stationed to guard it.

“Oh no... The prisoner!” Ahsoka whispers to herself before running off towards the direction of the only occupied cell, Barriss right behind with an annoyed look, obviously annoyed at Ahsoka’s ‘charge straight in’ method. 

Turning around the corner, both girls come across the form of the assassin they know as Kaylin decapitating the head of a poor clone from his body, the head bouncing across the floor from the momentum, before she looks up at them with a surprisingly serious face and states “What took you girls so long?”

Both igniting their lightsabers, the two girls were shocked at how the assassin could have escaped from her cell and then kill off every single guard stationed there.

“How did you...” Barriss begins to say, her eyes wide in surprise and confusion, before getting cut off by Ahsoka’s own statement.

“I don’t know how you got out but before this is over we will stop you.” She cries, her eyes fixed on Kaylin’s own, a determined look on both of their faces before getting interrupted by another voice, strangely familiar to the girls.

“That would imply that the two of you would still be alive at the end of this rather eventful day.” The voice states dryly, it sounding strangely metallic and synthetic yet still obviously masculine, causing both Ahsoka and Barriss to turn to see step from the shadows the familiar form of the Dal’Kaveen, the monster as Ahsoka likes to think of him from the hanger, standing directly behind them, his hands behind his back.

That explains how she got out Ahsoka thought as she and Barriss went back to back, Ahsoka facing the mysterious man whilst Barriss faced Kaylin, their green and blue lightsabers humming loudly.

The Dal’Kaveen slowly takes out a lightsaber hilt from behind his back, holding it with both of his hands high in the air, aiming downward as a dark menacing purple blade slowly sprouts out from it.

“Now, shall we begin?” He states, a light almost mocking tone in his voice, before suddenly charging at Ahsoka.


	9. The White of Their Eyes

Ahsoka, relying on her reflexes, parries the purple blade to the side before attempting to counter attack with her spare blade, her eyes widening as the Dal’Kaveen sidesteps the blade in the blink of an eye. She couldn’t dwell on the agility of her opponent however when, before she could resist, he grabs hold of the wrist that had thrusted her lightsaber towards him and, with the help of the force, swings her overhead with her body hitting hard on the grey wall opposite the Dal’Kaveen.

He’s... tough. She thought to herself as she gasped from the pain that was going through her body, her injured shoulder in particular seemingly screaming under the pain it was receiving.

The masked man, with an eerily faint chuckle that echoed across the room, suddenly leaps into the air, his entire body spinning widely as his blade’s purple light formed a translucent circle from the speed that was being exhibited, landing directly besides Ahsoka who narrowly dodged the incoming blade, ducking low under it as she moved her way backwards her two green blades held up defensively as the Dal’Kaveen twirled his lightsaber around his body as he steadily followed her before once again attacking with a controlled fury.

Barriss would have helped her friend but she had problems of her own, the assassin Kaylin being that said problem, who had attacked as soon as her master leapt into action, her blade arching high in the air as it slammed down hard on Barriss’ blue blade, the impact forcing Barriss to kneel slightly before bouncing back and pushing Kaylin backwards a couple of steps.

"You got some strength in that frame of yours it seems." The assassin commented, a smile on her face as she slowly circled the stature still Padawan who was focused entirely on her opponents footwork, seeing if she could predict Kaylin’s next move.

Without warning Kaylin rushed forward, stretching out towards Barriss with a sharp thrust that the teenage girl narrowly parried away before unleashing a surprisingly brutal counter attack of her own, forcing the assassin back once again before Kaylin’s experience and skill started to push Barriss back towards the elevator that the two teenagers had come down from moments ago, their battle much more even due to their different styles of fighting.

The battle between Ahsoka and the Dal’Kaveen was not so even handed in the slightest.

Whilst Ahsoka was extremely agile and skilled for her age, it was becoming obvious that she was no match for the sheer scale of how powerful her opponent was, his powers over the force not included. It was clear to Ahsoka that she was being led towards the elevator, her opponents frenzied attack, whilst seemingly having no purpose apart from killing her, was subtly pushing Ahsoka to where he wanted her to be.

The Ataru technique... I hate it when I have to face someone who uses it. Ahsoka thought to herself.

Neither she nor Barriss realised how close they were to each other, locked in their own separate and though brief very brutal battles, until they were shoulder-to-shoulder to each other and their backs touching the elevator doors, both breathing heavily from the last few intense minutes of singly combat, their blades all raised ready to fight back from the seemingly inevitable attack.

Their opponents however, seemed entirely too calm and relaxed to mean anything good for the Padawans, their own blades low yet still ready and waiting if the two girls tried anything.

“Well I’ll admit it. You girls are better than most of the scum that we face that’s for certain.” The Dal’Kaveen states, lightly chuckling to himself as if he were having a casual conversation with them and had not tried to kill them.

The girls remain silent, focused in their preparation to counter attack, not needing to talk to each other to come to the same conclusion.

The masked man continues saying to them. “Unfortunately as much as I would like to continue this little dance, me and my apprentice here need to get going and so you two must get out of our way.” Raising his blade level at them, he continues. “And before you ask, no I’m not asking.”

Suddenly both he and Kaylin use the force to throw them back to the other side of the prison cell, both of the girls landing harshly onto the ground, Ahsoka looking up to see the pair step into the lift and see the doors close in front of them, the masked man raising his hand in the air in a mocking farewell.

“Damn.”

~ ~ ~

“Why did you spare them?” Kaylin asked her mentor, her curiosity too much to bear.

“Why did you?” He countered, turning off his lightsaber.

“Because I could tell instantly that you didn’t want to, so I didn’t either.” She replied, deactivating her lightsaber in turn and crossing her arms whilst speaking.

“Let’s just say... I have a gut feeling.” He stated mysteriously, the lift doors opening up once again to reveal a small group of clones in front of them, shocked to see the pair of enemies in the lift.

“Enough chit chat my dear.” The Dal’Kaveen states dryly, turning his lightsaber back on as he spoke. “Back to work.”


	10. Why Hello There

The Tension on the bridge was intense as Admiral Yularen stared at the latest logistics of the battles on his ship was handed to him, numerous voices shouting to each other in the background.

Damn it, these villains are going to kill us all at this rate on my ship. MY ship damn it.

The Admiral couldn’t believe how hard these unknown foes were hitting his men, it was unfathomable.

“Are you sure this report is accurate? We have the 501st Legion onboard, not some new recruits that have no actual combat experience.” The Admiral asked his second in command, who had a rather sombre look on his face.

“I’m afraid so Admiral, these enemy soldiers are relentless and they’re taking their toll on the men.” He replied.

How did this situation get so bad? HOW?”

Before he could ask his second anything more, a loud series of clangs could be heard from behind the doors of the bridge, silencing everyone who had previously been shouting as loud as they could.

“What was that Admiral?” His second asked, sweat dripping down his face as he spoke.

“I think its obvious lieutenant.” Yularen replied dryly as blaster fire could be heard behind the doors, confirming their fears.

“Quickly men get ready.” The Admiral ordered as all of the men took out their blasters and positioned themselves for whatever would await them, the sounds of battle fading until all was silence once more.

Having positioned himself behind his men, Admiral Yularen could only wait for the inevitable battle that would be raging soon.  
After a few minutes the Admiral began to believe that the men behind the large pair of metal doors had repelled the enemy.

“I think we’re fine men...” The Admiral began before the metal doors burst forward from their posts, crushing several of the clones in the bridge.

Immediately after the demise of several of their brothers, the remaining clones opened fire into the cloud of dust, unable to see their opponents but hoping that they would hit their foes.

Unfortunately for them, it was not meant to be. A curved hilt soon soared through the air and out of the dust, a bright yellow blade attached to it, cutting down a number of clones in the process as it made its flight through the bridge and back into the hand of a figure that the Admiral recognised with dread.

The assassin he thought.

Kaylin, stepping out from the cloud like a phantom, leaps into the bridge and slices away at her clone foes, cutting all of them down without mercy, using the force to help her move even faster, becoming a blur to all attempting to locate her.

As quickly as it had begun it had ended, the bodies of the clones that had previously been shouting around the bridge now silent as they stared lifelessly at the ceiling.

Yularen, the only survivor on the bridge, was now on the floor attempting to stay motionless and as quiet as possible. As he looked at the body of his fallen second, his eyes staring directly at Yularen, soon heard the distinct thuds of heavy footstep enter the room and slowly paced towards the statue still Admiral until he saw the padded shoes directly in front of him.

“Well hello there my dear Admiral.” A deep synthesised voice said, causing Yularen to look up to see the hooded, masked leader of their unknown enemy, his sharp yellow visors looking directly at him.

“I do believe you’re the one in charge are you not?” He continues, using the force to raise the Admiral in the air, choking him in the process.

“I thought so. Now Admiral I have a few questions for you and I want you to answer truthfully because if you don’t then I’m afraid my apprentice here will not be too happy.” He goes on almost casually, gesturing to his female accomplice who nods her head with a smile.

“Who is leading your forces Admiral?” He states, suddenly deadly serious. “I heard from my men that there are two Jedi on this ship. And before you ask I don’t mean the two teenage girls who can barely hold a lightsaber because if they are the only force wielding threat on this ship then I know I have nothing to fear.”

Yularen knew that even if he would tell this man everything he knew they would still kill him regardless, so instead opted to simply remain silent in defiance. This however earned him an almost animal like growl from his captor.

“Wrong answer my dear admiral.” He states before tightening his telekinetic choke on Yularen. “Kaylin, hack into their computer, see what you can find whilst I deal with our friend here.”

As Kaylin started to rapidly hack into the Republic computers, making rapid progress in a matter of seconds, the masked Dal’Kaveen quickly took his blaster out and shoots out both of Yularen’s kneecaps, earning him a cry of pain.

“I suggest you let my friend go Sith.” A voice called out behind them, making the two so-called Sith turn around to face a deadly serious Anakin Skywalker and one master Luminara Unduli, both their lightsabers out.

“Well you two have just answered my own question.” The Dal’Kaveen states before continuing. “We’re not Sith, boy, so I suggest you get that misconception out of your little head.”

“In all seriousness I don’t care that much right now.” Anakin fires back with vigour. “But the two of you will lose this day if I have a say about it.”

“Says the man who is on the losing side.” Kaylin taunts to her opponent.

“Not if you two are out of the picture.” Luminara states as she holds her green lightsaber directly in front of her.

Kaylin growls out at the threat, starting to move towards before being stopped by the raised hand of her mentor.

“Kaylin do you have what you need?” He asks, his eyes never leaving the Jedi as he spoke.

“Yes.”

“Then go. I’ll deal with our friends personally.” He states, causing Kaylin to at first look hesitantly towards her mentor before moving towards the exit, the two Jedi letting her go as both Skywalker and Unduli knew, thanks to their connection to the force, that their real threat was standing directly in front of them standing directly still.

“Do you know what the word Dal’Kaveen means?” He asks the Jedi, regaining their full attention.

“It has multiple meanings but in this case it has one particular translation that I do believe relates to the two of you.” He asks, slowly bringing the hilt of his lightsaber to bare, the distinctly dark purple blade slowly sprouting out from the hilt.

“Oh and what would that be?” Anakin sarcastically asks, getting his own blue lightsaber out ready for the inevitable battle.

“It means ‘The End.’”

And then he attacked.


	11. Duelling

To Anakin and Luminara’s surprise the man called the ‘Dal’Kaveen’ (It must be a title of some kind if Anakin had to guess) leapt towards the two Jedi knights, spinning in the air as he does so, landing directly in-between the two and immediately strikes out at Anakin with a quick underhand strike to the stomach that Anakin narrowly dodged with a block from his own lightsaber, the blue and purple lightsabers briefly clashing together.

He’s quicker than I thought.

The clash suddenly ended when the Dal’Kaveen abruptly pushed the blue blade and turned around to face Luminara, who he must have sensed was just about to attack his side, blocking the impending blow and using his momentum to push the blade aside and spinning into a thrust aimed at her midsection, Luminara sidestepping out of the way before it could land its mark.

Really Quick.

Luminara struck back attempting to slash her opponent’s midsection and cleave him in two. The Dal’Kaveen however anticipated it and expertly turned the blow aside and with the help of the force, violently pushed her to the other side of the bridge, her back brutally hitting the wall in the process.

Not missing a beat, the masked warrior turned back towards Anakin, preparing to strike him down with ease. Before he could however, Anakin rushed the Dal’Kaveen, attacking him savagely with hard hitting strikes that immediately puts his opponent on the defensive, moving backwards at a determined pace as he defended himself, using his superior agility to his advantage as he ducked, jumped and span around to avoid possibly fatal blows to his body.

Time to take back control the masked man mentally states to himself, a grin behind his mask as he notes the recovering Luminara running towards the battling pair.

The two battling specimens of excellence soon clashed again, their blades grinding together as the two men pushed their blades against one another and creating a stalemate between the two. A chuckle soon escapes the Dal’Kaveen, causing Anakin to frown in confusion.

“What’s so funny?” He asked through his teeth, grunting slightly from the effort of keeping his opponent at bay.

“This.” His opponent almost growls back to him before sidestepping the ‘Chosen One’ causing Anakin to stumble forward from the amount of power that he was putting into the now defunct clash and directly into a sharp elbow to the face.

The sheer force from the blow caused Anakin to stumble backwards, his free hand going to his nose that was now spouting large amounts of blood on his mouth and chin, giving the Dal’Kaveen enough space to leap towards Anakin with a large yet swift spinning kick to his face once again, knocking him harshly to the floor and temporarily dazing him.

“The blade is not the only weapon in my arsenal boy, remember that.” He states simply before parrying a swift strike intended for his head.

“That was quite vicious for a Jedi, my dear. Have I shaken your vows?” He taunted to Luminara as he backed up a few steps, who had a tight lipped frown on her face, not allowing his taunts to shake her.

“Your dark ways will never shake me, sith.” She states towards him with venom before unleashing a string of attacks on her masked opponent who narrowly parries each one of them.

“What have I said about that word?” He asks suddenly serious, anger slowly trickling into his voice as he spoke before unleashing a barrage of brutal blows of his own.

“I. Am. No. Sith!” He shouts at her, each word accompanied by a huge strike that eventually dismantles her defence, her body getting lower to the ground with each strike, eventually tiring her to the point where she can’t defend herself, until the last blows force cause Luminara to drop her lightsaber.

“It’s over my dear, time to die.” He says, looking around briefly to see Anakin only now getting back to his feet and not being able to come to Luminara’s aid, readying his lightsaber to deliver the fatal blow.

However due to him checking his surroundings to check on Anakin, he had given Luminara enough time to call upon her deep reserves of the force to push him away brutally just as he was about to strike her down, the force of the push sending the Dal’Kaveen directly towards the end of the bridge, through the destroyed doors and hitting the lift doors directly on his back.

Luminara was greeted as she stood back up and retrieved her lightsaber with the force by Anakin Skywalker, who had only then gotten out of the daze caused by the harsh hits to the head.

“You alright?” He asked with concern, blood still on his face.

“I should ask you that my friend.” Luminara replied with a faint, exhausted smile. “But I suggest we deal with our friend.”

As they directed their attention to their opponent, they saw that the Dal’Kaveen had gotten back to his feet and was noticing a red bleeping light on one of his gauntlets, an indication only bad news for the Jedi as the masked man deactivated his lightsaber and looked towards the Jedi.

“That is my cue to take my leave, Jedi.” He began, his voice followed by a light chuckle before continuing. “I suggest you do too. Unless of course you do what any honourable Captain would do...” Suddenly raising his hands and using the force to aid him, the Dal’Kaveen rips the lift doors off its hinges and throws them towards the Jedi, who quickly cut the door lifts in two with their lightsabers, before preparing himself to jump down the elevator shaft, stopping briefly to finish his statement at the two Jedi.

“... And sink with the ship.”

And with that message conveyed, he jumps.


	12. Reinforcements

“Still nothing?” General Obi-wan Kenobi asked as he looked out at the streaming lights of hyperspace, stroking his beard worriedly as his second, Commander Cody, responded.

“No General. There has still been no response from the Resolute.” Cody stated a worried yet determined look on his face.

It had been over half an hour since Kenobi had tried to contact his former pupil, the seasoned general hoping to receive any updates on their mission. Now however he was worried for the hundreds of clones on the three republic ships that Anakin had control of and the four Jedi onboard the Resolute.

I don’t like this he thought. He was worried that he and his own trio of ships would arrive to find not only the remains of the four missing republic and separatist ships but the remains of his friends as well.

“How long are we till we’re out of hyperspace Cody?” Kenobi asked, his fears suddenly becoming amplified due to a shift in the force.

He couldn’t understand it but somehow someway, a change occurred within the force. An extremely powerful blast had caused a shockwave through it. The worst thing however was that this pulse felt neither dark nor light yet both at the same time as well.

This could turn the tide in our favour. Or against it.

“Any second now General.” Cody answered, his hands itching for an imaginary trigger. Kenobi couldn’t blame him. He too was itching to find answers.

The streaming lights of hyperspace started to slow suddenly before coming to a full stop as the familiar darkness of space crept into full view.

That and of course the ongoing battle.

As Kenobi’s ship the Negotiator arrived along with the other two ships of his fleet they found themselves at the edges of a fierce space battle between two of Anakin’s cruisers and a strange ship that had what appeared to be a red beak and two fins on an otherwise near black coloured ships with multiple markings that Obi-wan had never seen before.

It was obvious that whilst outnumbered, this unknown ship was absolutely decimating the two cruisers with one of them being engulfed in small explosions that indicated its limited life span.

Kenobi soon noticed however the one stranded cruiser that was revealed to be Anakin’s flagship a short distance away from the space battle.

He was quickly starting to wonder why Anakin couldn’t help his fleet when the Jedi soon saw the multiple troop carriers on the hull of the Resolute.

Troop carriers... so that’s why Anakin couldn’t respond. He has his own problems to deal with.

“Cody prep the men, we’re going to help General Skywalker with his infestation problem. The fleet will help against the unknown ship.” Kenobi quickly states before rushing towards the hanger bay, Cody following behind him.

~ ~ ~

The hallway was empty as far as the Dal’Kaveen could tell, apart from the dead bodies on the ground most of them being clone corpses but a few of his own men popped up on the floor.

What a waste. They shouldn’t have died today, it wasn’t meant to be. Damn these Jedi scum! 

His commlink started to beep, surprising the man briefly as he wasn’t expecting any updates on the taking of the ship just yet.

“Commander Daggen report. What’s the situation?” The Dal’Kaveen asked as he opened up the channel between himself and the commander.   
“Apologies my lord but I have received word from the Justice that three more Republic cruisers have exited out of hyperspace. Admiral Kaine says that five cruisers are too much even for a ship like the Justice.” Daggen replies with a worried note to his voice.

“Tell the Admiral to spring the trap on our Republic friends.” The Dal’Kaveen states before switching of his commlink and continuing down the hallway.

~ ~ ~

At the centre of a command bridge, multiples voices could be heard shouting out figures and information towards one another, several officers coordinating their fighter pilots as they sat on high chairs scattered around the bridge, holo projectors in front of them.

Through all of this stood one man at the front of the bridge, staring impassively at the window that showed the dogfight of the two opposing star fighters, his hands behind his back as he stood in a relaxed military stance.

He had a short uniformed haircut combed backwards, dark grey in colour and a neatly trimmed beard on his face of the same colour. His uniform was near black with golden metal pauldrons and golden gauntlets, a blaster strapped to his side to complete the look. If this didn’t indicate that he was a superior officer of the ship then he had the scars of previous battles to prove how he attained the rank, a dull completely white eye next to a dark brown eye. This was Admiral Kaine, known by many as ‘The Tactician’.

“I’ve just received a message from Commander Daggen, Admiral. He says the Dal’Kaveen wants us to spring the trap.” A young officer says as she marches towards the Admiral’s side, her long brown hair tied into a ponytail and her grey uniform shining under the lights.

“Then spring the trap we shall Private Gaele.” The Admiral replies, his voice deep and gravelly as he turns around and heads for the Admiral’s chair that was square in the middle of the bridge.

“Private, call in the cruisers.” He continues as he marches towards the chair, the private walking slightly behind the towering figure. “I want the Executioner and the Pilgrim here now with the ships Vigilance and Adamant by our opponents flanks.”

Sitting down the Admiral concludes ominously. “If these Republic dogs want to come into our territory and say hello, then it is only polite of us to greet them with open arms.”

As the young private starts to run off to relay the orders, Admiral Kaine starts to look out at the raging battle in space once again with only one thought in mind as he stared at his opponents.

Check. Your move Jedi.


	13. The Next Step

“General Kenobi, General Kenobi!” A voice ran out on the commlink of the Jedi, his voice showing how urgent his message was for the general.

“What is it Admiral?” Kenobi asked, thinking to himself how this situation could possibly get any worse. Obi wan was in one of the LAAT drop ships’ that was already out heading towards the Resolute along with five other LAAT ships. Each one of these ships was currently filled with members of the 212th attack battalion, each one of their orange coloured armour distinct in the light.

“Four more enemy vessels have just exited hyperspace, our ships are surrounded and we’ve already lost one of our cruisers!” Admiral Block replied, his worries plain through his voice. He was Obi wan would admit a very... cautious man, his bald head seemingly always in a sweat from a problem.

These foes are no slouches. Whoever’s commanding their ship has quite the mind on them. 

“Can you hold them off Admiral?” Obi wan asked.

“We can damn well try Master Jedi but I would suggest that you wrap up whatever is happening at the Resolute sooner rather than later.” The admiral concluded with a sigh, cutting off the transmission after the conclusion of his statement.

Obi wan sighed to himself as he turned towards Commander Cody, a rather weary look on his face. He was tired and his face revealed that fact, making him look at that moment much older than he actually was.

“It looks like it’s up to us to save the day once again, Cody.” He comments with a small smirk, attempting to lighten the mood among his men, earning him a few chuckles in the process.

“Five minutes till our arrival on the ship, General. We’ll be entering on the left side hanger.” Cody states as he put his helmet firmly in place.

“Let’s hope that there are no more complications, shall we?” He asks sarcastically.

Otherwise this is going to be a very long day.

~ ~ ~

A red beeping light on his commlink indicated to the Dal’Kaveen all he needed to know as he pressed a series of buttons, moving forward at a steady pace, raising the commlink to his masked face before speaking.

“Commander Daggen, the signal has been received. Get the men back to the ships, me and my apprentice will make our way back to you. If we’re not back in time then leave us, we’ll make our own way out.”

“Understood my lord, I shall see you on the other side.” Daggen replied, the Dal’Kaveen noting the certainty in the statement, before cutting off the transmission.

Ever the certain one.

Pressing on the still beeping red light, a miniature holo image of a slightly excited Kaylin appeared on his wrist, obviously waiting for him to call.

“Everything is ready then?” He asked, though he knew the answer before she said it.

“Of course my master, the charges are set. I’m just waiting for your go ahead.” She replied with a smile, her head bowing slightly as she spoke.

Shaking his head slightly, the masked man comments on her apparent excitement. “Remind me that we’re going to need to help you with your... explosive urges my dear.”

The only response was a rather embarrassed smile and a shrug of the shoulders.

“Get out of there Kaylin and then detonate the charges. I suggest you head for the hanger bay. We’re leaving.”

“Understood master. Brace yourself however, in the next few minutes it might get a little bumpy.” She concludes with a bow and a smile before ending the transmission.

I think a little bumpy might be a slight understatement my dear.

“Let the games begin.” He states to himself simply before quickening the pace, knowing full well what was about to happen.

~ ~ ~

Ending the transmission, Kaylin looks around to see the charges were still working perfectly. There were a multitude of explosive charges placed around the fuel reactors of the ship.

The Jedi aren’t going anywhere.

Taking one last glance with an almost longing look, Kaylin turns forward and moves in a light jog out of the large room, the patting of her feet growing fainter and fainter before the room returned to silence; the only noise being that of the active fuel reactor and the constant beeping of the nearby charges.

This ended however, when the beeping suddenly stopped and the explosions began.


	14. Retreat

“That wasn’t good.” One of the clones said sombrely to his fellow brethren, about eight of them left with their battle with the enemy, who had also stopped momentarily to take note of the tremors being emitted on the ship.

Captain Rex shook his head at the statement, thinking it to quite possibly being the understatement of the day.

“Thank you Joker for your brilliant deduction work.” Rex scornfully replied, he had lost a lot of brothers already and he didn’t want the last of them to make any jokes in a time like this where more could fall. “Just keep shooting at them, their losing men as well as us!”

Under the visor of his blue marked helmet, he and the rest of the 501st troopers looked towards the far side of the corridor the clones were fighting for; noting how like them the black robed and armoured warriors had also sustained a large amount of casualties.

We could still take them Rex thought, a surge of hope and adrenaline coursing through his body as he calculated their odds.  
Whilst their opponents had more men than them (and that was only by a small margin, twelve if Rex counted them right) it was obvious that they were tired. They may be shock soldiers then Rex thought, meant to push hard for the first stage of the fight but not to stay in a prolonged battle.

Another factor that favoured the clones was the fact that there were no force users among the survivors. There had previously been a behemoth of a man with a single green lightsaber but he had pushed too far ahead and was a victim to two grenades and a barrage of blue laser fire.

The monster was still able to stand for a few minutes longer before he went down Rex thought with a hint of respect for his fallen adversary.

“Men!” Rex suddenly barked in a hushed whisper. “Throw all of our remaining grenades at the bastard’s then charge at them.”  
Before the enemy could react Rex and his men threw their last grenades at them, causing a massive explosion inside the corridor, the light from the explosion blinding the group of clones temporarily.

When the light faded enough for Rex to open his eyes, he saw what could only be described as something that a pyromaniac would cry with joy over. There were multiple burnt corpses, their robes eviscerated and their armour burnt and broken, skulls with the black remains of skin hanging on them from any soldier, who had been at the front of the blast, their helmets useless against such intensity.

Overkill perhaps but it worked.

To his surprise, some of the black-cladded men had survived, two of them stumbling around in a slight daze as third man screamed out in pain, one of his legs a bloody stump at the knee with the rest of his leg on the other side of the hall.

“Charge them!” Rex shouted, charging forward with his two signature blasters as the rest of the clones followed his lead.

The two mobile men quickly came to their senses at the sight of the charging men, one of them picking up a long barrelled rifle and shooting back as the other tried to carry his still screaming comrade down the rest of the corridor.

The lone shooter was good Rex would begrudgingly admit as single yellow blaster fire came towards them, hitting two of his men dead with pinpoint accuracy, whilst his own men couldn’t hit them no matter how hard they tried, to the Captain’s frustration.

As the clones closed the gap immensely as they were now right on top of the injured soldiers, a side door suddenly caught Rex’s eye. The reason for this was because of the fact that it had opened all on its own to reveal a man in similar in black armour; only he didn’t have a helmet on like the rest of them revealing a large beard on the grizzled man’s face.

This man, as he stepped into the corridor, had been carrying to Rex’s horror a very, very, big gun.

A barrage of yellow blaster fire erupted from the cannon, hitting the most of the clones square on due to them running straight at the bearded man. Clones were hit left and right, their chest, head’s and any other part of their bodies being shown no mercy.

Rex fails to get to the man in time, falling just a bit before him, his left leg getting hit just as the captain was about to shoot him square in the jaw, his twin blasters fallen out of his reach. Not bowing down from the pain and using the last of his adrenaline Rex shoots up directly on the man, charging him to a nearby wall and forcing him to drop his cannon like gun.

This however allowed his opponent to deliver a haymaker on Rex, apparently unaffected by the metal helmet he had been wearing, causing Rex to let go of the man’s body and step backwards in a daze.

This gave the bearded man enough time to deliver multiple punches to the head and chest of Rex at a seemingly impossible speed, Rex not being quick enough to dodge them. Rex spits out some blood from his mouth, his helmet having been taken off due to the force of the punches, before catching one of his opponent’s arms, twists it and proceeds to hit him with one of his armoured knees to the man’s stomach, taking the air out from his lungs.

Before he could continue, the man quickly head butts Rex straight in the nose before tackling the clone to the opposite wall with a loud bang.

His back to the wall, Rex barely side steps the incoming punch and returns with a punch of his own that connects with the right side of the man’s jaw. The black armoured soldier backs up a few steps, blood coming out his mouth and dripping into his beard.

That was when it hit Rex, the man had been familiar to him but only now did it click.

“Your name’s Daggen. Commander Daggen.” He says in-between breaths.

Daggen only grunts before snarling “And you're a dead man, clone.” With a hint of disgust in his voice, before pulling out a blaster from his side and aiming it at Rex.

Multiple shots however stopped him when he and Rex looked towards the end of corridor to see orange clad troopers fire in his direction, causing the man and the rest of his men to flee, some helping the wounded man through the side door.

Not today I’m not.

Picking up his helmet and his blasters, he turns to face a very familiar man in armour before saying simply:

“You took your goddamn time Cody.”


	15. You Again

The body of the now dead clone, two quick slashes to the chest the cause of his death, fell to the ground with a heavy thud, the rest of his group already dead.

The Dal’Kaveen looked down towards the dead clones, turning off his purple blade, noting the orange that was plastered among some of the clones as well as the now familiar blue that reveals a member of the 501st.

“It looks like they have reinforcements.” He mutters to himself before continuing down the hall.

As he continued onwards his communicator started to beep, revealing when he opened the channel the voice of Daggen, the background filled with constant blaster fire and hectic shouting from men of both sides.

“Daggen what’s the situation?” He asks in a calm but serious voice.

“Sir, the scum have received reinforcements! The last of the men are at the hanger. Where are you?” Daggen asks with a sense of desperation.

Daggen’s a good commander but if he’s calling me then the situation is far tougher than he is letting on.

“Get your men out of there. Kaylin and I will find another way off this ship.”

“Understood my lord. Good luck.” Daggen states sombrely before cutting the communication, the Dal’Kaveen switching his communicator to his apprentice.

“Kaylin, we’re on our own. Find a ship in one of the side hangers and await me there. Out.”

He moved forward at a furious pace, knowing that time was of the essence now that the ship only had a limited time period before it was going downhill fast.

A presence nearby was the only thing that stopped him, realising that it was coming from an adjacent corridor he stopped at one of the passing intervals between the two.

Of course it’s them, who else had such a powerful essence that I didn’t know about.

That was what he was thinking when he caught sight of the now running Jedi that he had faced earlier, their lightsabers out and their faces showing concern, probably due to the explosions that they had caused.

After watching them pass him by, the leader of what he thought was the greatest civilisation in existence decided in that second that if anyone knew where there were any spare ships on this cruiser, it was them.

Time to play hide and seek he thought as preceded to follow the pair, his hilt in hand.

~ ~ ~

“Looks like we’re need to find another way of this damn ship.” Kaylin remarked dryly before looking at an orange tinged clone trooper who was hovering in the air in a force grip, her right hand outstretched seemingly holding him there with the other hand holding her curved hilt.

“You know of any spare ships lying around?” She asked with a chuckle, the clone helpless in her grip and slowly suffocating to death.

“No? I’m not surprised. Thank you anyway you’ve been a great help.” She says sarcastically before crushing him with the force, his body a broken and lifeless form floating in the air.

“Till next time.” She mutters to herself with a small smirk.

Moving forward and through a large steel door, she stepped into a smaller version of the main hanger that had been taken over by her people.

At first she only noticed a couple of fighters, dismissing them when she realised that they would get shot down by their own cruisers before landing. It was then that she saw it, in the far corner of the hanger bay, a ship commonly used for diplomatic missions if she would take a guess.

Perfect, now to let my master know-

Vroom.

The familiar sounds of an igniting lightsaber hits hear ears, followed quickly by the sound of two more similar sounds.

Turning to where she entered, she saw the familiar faces of the two padawans, the Togrutan girl and the tattooed Mirialan girl, their blue and green lightsabers out and pointed right at her.

“Why hello, If it isn’t you again my dears.”


	16. Two Against one

“Where do you think you’re going, Kaylin.” Ahsoka asks sarcastically, a low growl being heard at the end of her sentence.

“Oh just passing by my dear, I thought I should start leaving since you’re all so busy and all.” Kaylin replies with a hint of a light mocking tone, almost as if she were having a casual conversation with an old friend.

Kaylin, whilst trying to hide it, was searching desperately for something to take advantage on. She was starting to move ever so slowly backwards before finding that the Mirialan girl had already moved behind her with the girl’s blue lightsaber pointed at the girl’s lower spine.

“Oh but we were just getting to know each other Kaylin. It would be a shame if you left now.” Ahsoka comments with a serious look in her eye, despite the sarcastic tone still in her voice.

As Ahsoka and Kaylin initiated an intense battle of glares Barriss noticed the lightsaber hilt in the assassin’s hand, her arms raised in the universal ‘I surrender’ gesture.

“Drop it.” Barriss remarks, her eyes on the hilt and her voice carrying a veiled threat from the Padawan.

“Drop what?” Kaylin asked dumbly, her smile on her face the only thing that gave away the lie.

“The hilt assassin. Drop it!” Barriss commanded her normally calm voice turning into a shout.

“Alright alright,” Kaylin drawled out with a smile, clearly amused by her captors. “Here you go, I’m dropping it.” And with a sense of flair to her movements, Kaylin drops the hilt, drawing the Jedi’s gaze to it.

It was exactly as she had planned. 

Ahsoka now taking her gaze off of Kaylin regrets it immediately when the assassin, still in the same position as before, pushes her left hand forward in an open palm to blast Ahsoka with the force, sending her tumbling down the corridor.

As this happened Kaylin then brought back the hilt, which was still in the middle of falling, to her right hand before spinning round in a blinding speed to deliver a heavy swing, on the surprised Barriss, with her newly activated yellow lightsaber.

It was only her natural senses and quick reflexes that stopped Barriss from getting split in half from the attack, instead merely getting pushed back from the force of the blow after raising her blade to block the attack.

Kaylin didn’t let up however, using her superior footwork to attack fast enough to make Barriss think that she was getting hit from all sides, all the while pushing Barriss further and further inside the side hanger.

Whilst Barriss could only defend herself and not mount any counter attacks against Kaylin, she realised with growing certainty that she was going to die in the next few moments.

She’s too fast! I can’t. Keep. Up...

This realisation came to ahead when Kaylin bluffed her into raising her blade to block what Barriss thought was an incoming overhead strike, realising too late her mistake, opening up her stomach for a swift kick to the stomach by Kaylin, sprawling her across the floor with the help of the force heightening the force of the blow.

Her lightsaber rolling across the floor out of arms reach, Barriss could only watch as Kaylin brought her blade down on her, the Padawan on her back and still too dazed from getting the wind literally kicked out of her.

That would have happened if for the timely intervention of two green coloured lightsabers that had taken the hit for Barriss; Ahsoka revealing it was she who had been the one who stopped the fatal blow.

Kaylin, clearly annoyed at the intrusion, missed an attempted slash that was directed at Ahsoka’s upper chest and neck before getting blasted with a force push from Ahsoka, being moved backwards by a sizable amount of feet.

Ahsoka, before charging back towards the assassin, quickly said to Barriss, “Barriss get Anakin and Luminara, we need help here.”

Rapidly tapping some buttons on her commlink, Barriss quickly relayed the message before using the force to bring her hilt to her and charging into the direction of the fighting.

~ ~ ~

“Skywalker I’ve received a message from Barriss!” Luminara shouted out towards Anakin who had been running in front but now stopping to listen to the message.

“What does it say? Is Ahsoka with her?” Anakin asks hurriedly, his worrying evident in his voice.

“Yes but they’ve encountered the assassin and require assistance. They’re in the side hanger.” Before they could run towards the Padawans position a familiar voice shouted out.

“Anakin! Master Luminara!” Obi wan called out, coming to a stop to where the two were.

“Obi wan where have you been? What is it?” Anakin replied with annoyance at the fact that the longer they waited the more time for Ahsoka to get hurt.

“Never mind that, the ship is going down, we don’t have much time! Every soldier good and bad have evacuated, it’s just us and the padawans on the ship.” Obi wan explained with a sense of urgency in his face and voice.

“Not all of them...” Anakin mutters darkly to himself before charging down the corridor leading toward the side hanger, a nervous Luminara and a reluctant Obi wan behind them.

None however noticed the figure trailing behind them in the shadows, his lightsaber hilt in his hand.


	17. Battle in the Hangar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay everyone, life and what-not getting in the way.  
> Hope you enjoy the chapter.

This isn’t going well.

As those words entered her head, Ahsoka ducks down and barely dodges the incoming blow of a yellow bladed lightsaber, the owner of said weapon grinning ear to ear, seemingly embracing the thrill of battle.

She’s mad. She’s gotta be.

“Feeling the pressure yet my dear?” Kaylin taunts, her body twirling back and forth due to Barriss and Ahsoka being on either side of her, the assassin walking backwards and forwards towards whoever she was attacking or defending against in what was seen as a common Makashi trait.

Neither Barriss nor Ahsoka bother to answer the woman’s taunt, each attempting to hit a blow on their opponent who every now and again would laugh the sound like a cackling witch to the Padawans ears.

“What’s so funny Kaylin, have you finally realised how mad you are?” Ahsoka taunts, her left handed blade effortlessly being blocked by the Kaylin, who then proceeds to jump and roll in the air and away from the duo, standing by each other’s side as they turn to face Kaylin.

"Of course not little girl, I’m just finding it funny how the Jedi are putting their hopes for the future on you two.” She calls back to them, a chuckle following the last of her sentence.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ahsoka shouts at her, offended by this ‘harlot’s’ words, whilst Barriss merely sends daggers courtesy of her eyes towards the assassin.

“The fact that one of you is far too stubborn and naive to get anywhere in life and the other, well, she’s starting to lose her way so to speak.” Kaylin states with a dark gleam in her eyes, her scar stretching slightly from the smile she wore on her face.

Barriss, her eyes and general appearance suddenly very angry and dark, charges toward Kaylin with a righteous fury, sending blow after blow to the assassin, who is now barely able to block the blows. The smile was gone from her face.

Barriss! What’s getting to her?

Realising the situation had gotten far more serious and dangerous than earlier, all attempt of mockery whether verbally or physically now gone, Kaylin wearing that of a serious warrior who was staring Barriss straight in the eyes as the two locked blades.

Ahsoka, running towards the two to support her friend, starts hearing a beeping noise that would often be heard from a commlink, the sound emitting from one of Kaylin’s gauntlets with a red light indicating it was coming from her.

A small smile starts to creep onto Kaylin’s face, before she spits directly at Barriss’ face, causing the Mirialan to step back slightly from the dirty tactic, and backhanding her for good measure.

No, No, NO! Not today Barriss!

Just as Ahsoka reached them, instead of attempting to deliver the killing blow over the dazed and currently on the floor Barriss (who was still trying to clear her eyes from the spit), she instead leaps into the air at impossible heights for a normal person and starts to run towards the hanger entrance, jumping completely over the Padawans, and heading directly at the three very familiar Jedi who were just entering the room.

~ ~ ~

"We’re here Obi-wan.” Anakin exclaims as he arrives first in the side hanger, Obi-wan and Luminara right behind him.

"And so is a rather sadistic looking woman who is coming right for us.” Obi-wan remarks with a serious tone, quickly noticing the vastly approaching assassin running towards them.

"We can take her.” Anakin states darkly before readying himself to charge her, stopping at the sound of a Vroom behind the trio.

The noise belonging to the lightsaber of the Dal’Kaveen, his cloak whooshing around the floor as he remarks:

"Not if you’re dealing with me Jedi.”

After that he takes out a similar looking cylinder from the one he was already holding from underneath his cloak, turning it on to reveal another, slightly smaller purple bladed lightsaber in his other hand.

He then leapt into the air, directly towards the Jedi as Kaylin was right upon them, roaring like an animal with all his might.


	18. The Unknown Foe

Anakin dodges the incoming slash to his head, ducking low as the Dal’Kaveen lands on his feet, Obi-wan standing opposite him as he blocks an attempted blow to the chest.

The Dal’Kaveen, twirling around after landing; his purple blades moving around in a sphere of purple light and causing the three Jedi to block multiple attacks from his two lightsabers, quickly ducks down whilst spinning, crouching low enough for a charging Kaylin to leap over him and land in between of Obi-wan and Anakin.

Luminara, having been separated from her companions, starts taking the brunt of the Dal’Kaveen’s attack; the Dal’Kaveen himself leaping around her every few seconds to attack from various angles and keeping Luminara purely on the defence.

“I could use a hand over here!” Luminara shouts out towards her friends, blocking a swipe to her neck.

“We’re kind of busy Master Unduli!” Obi-wan replies, his focus completely on the attacking woman in front of him, who wore a sly grin on her face; seemingly finding the situation exciting.

“Take the left, I’ll take the right.” Anakin states with a serious look to his face, his statement causing Obi-wan to briefly look at his friend.

“Aren’t I the one who normally comes up with the plan?” Obi-wan asks his friend with a familiar sense of humour, causing Anakin to briefly smile.

“Well, this has been a day for surprises.” He concludes before moving towards the right of Kaylin, Obi-wan moving to the left: both Jedi attacking at the same time, Kaylin with almost unnatural depths of speed blocking both of their attacks.

As each combatant continued their own battles Ahsoka, who had been rushing ahead with Barriss following close behind, soon notices Luminara barely dodging the quick strikes of the Dal’Kaveen and runs to her defence. Using her momentum, Ahsoka shoulder barges the Dal’Kaveen with the help of the force towards where Kaylin, Anakin and Obi-wan are.

Kaylin, suddenly seeing her master in her eyesight get pushed backwards by the Togruta Padawan mutters to herself “I’m gonna kill her!” before using the force to push her two current foes away into the corridor and pulls Ahsoka, as if by magic, towards her with her one free hand with a violent tug.

Ahsoka, helpless in the air as she is suddenly getting pulled towards an awaiting yellow blade, uses the force to push downward, pushing herself up in the air before using the momentum of gravity to leap onto Kaylin, who barely dodges out of the way; shock and a hint of respect from the manoeuvre on her face.

As the two battled, Luminara and Barriss were busy facing the Dal’Kaveen who had no problem with being outnumbered, holding off any attack from the Padawan-master duo. Just as they seemed to be getting an advantage, seemingly pushing the masked man back, the Dal’Kaveen quickly showed the two that he was more than fine with the current situation; unleashing a sudden torrent of quick strikes against the two, getting behind Luminara’s defences and hitting her in the side of her stomach and then pushing her with a violent force push, before turning his attention towards Barriss.

A sharp pain-ridden scream cries out in the hanger bay, causing Ahsoka and everyone else to look at the source. What they saw shocked them.

Still standing upwards with a shocked look on her face was Padawan Barriss Offee, looking down to see her left her arm that was still holding on to her lightsaber on the floor, cut from where her elbow was and leaving only a stump in its place.

“NO!” Ahsoka cries out, force pushing the Dal’Kaveen away before he could finish her friend off, blocking a sudden vicious blow from Kaylin who had a glare staring straight at the Togrutan.

“You’re not going to harm him, child. Not whilst I live!” She almost growls out, before attacking the girl with renewed vigour.

As that happened Obi-wan and Anakin rushed towards the form of Barriss, Luminara moving towards her Padawan at a snail’s pace in comparison due to the wound she herself had taken, the Dal’Kaveen slowly getting back to his feet with an inaudible growl.

“Luminara get Barriss out of here, find a ship and prepare for departure.” Obi-wan stated his eyes on the dismembered limb that had belonged to Barriss.

“Understood Kenobi, make sure the rest of you are on the ship when we depart.” She replies before helping the now kneeling and numb from pain Barriss, who was holding the stump of her arm, back to her feet and towards the direction of a nearby ship.

We’ll try.

“Master!” Kaylin shouts out after gaining breathing room from Ahsoka, her voice betraying a sense relief and concern for his wellbeing, before rushing towards him and standing back to back with him, Kaylin facing the now recovered Ahsoka and the Dal’Kaveen facing Obi-wan and Anakin.

“It’s over. Give up.” Obi-wan states, his eyes showing a rare sense of seriousness that Ahsoka had only seen a couple of times, Anakin speaking just after him.

“Snips you alright?” He asked, concern and worry for her wellbeing clear in his voice, earning a nod from Ahsoka in response: the Padawan having to breath in a few deep breathes due to the sustained intensity of the last few battles.

However the Dal’Kaveen also noticed the clear concern in Anakin’s voice as well, whispering to Kaylin:

“Apprentice, do you remember my lesson in combat?” He asked.

“Of course, find your opponents weakness and destroy them with it.” She replies herself in a whisper.

“I do believe I have found the weakness.” He states simply and after a moment contemplating what her master meant, Kaylin smiles a cunning smile.

After a few moments, the Dal’Kaveen concludes the conversation with the simple words:

“Take them.”

Almost immediately after he said it, Kaylin backward jumps over her master and starts running straight towards Obi-wan and Anakin, the Dal’Kaveen at the same time charging towards Ahsoka who had one thought in mind as her mind seemingly slowed down everything that was happening.

He’s going to kill me.


	19. Life and Death

The blades were nearly too fast, every block she made barely stopping him from cutting her apart like he did to Barriss. Each strike he made was quick and precise, forcing her to extend herself numerous times and waste energy.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ahsoka could see Anakin and Obi-wan fending off Kaylin, her master obviously trying to come to her aid.

They both knew that try as she might, Ahsoka couldn’t beat him.

He was simply far more experienced than she was, the Dal’Kaveen expertly anticipating her every move before she made it. It was a miracle that Ahsoka wasn’t dead.

The pairs of purple and green lightsabers clashing together at rapid speed, their styles of fighting seemingly identical, both of them jumping around to strike at new angles of each other and weaving around any strikes against them.

"You can’t win child, I am the stronger warrior by far." The Dal’Kaveen claims, slowly moving towards Ahsoka after a force push from her pushed him a couple of metres away.

"I think I’m doing alright, you haven’t killed me yet." Ahsoka fires back, adrenaline pumping through her veins.

"Only because I allowed it." The masked man states, a growl emanating from him as he spoke.

As soon as he finished his statement, the Dal’Kaveen suddenly leapt towards her with blinding speed, surprising Ahsoka with how fast he was; barely blocking the incoming blows as the Dal’Kaveen attacked and attacked again with a sense of unrelenting fury.

As the battle wore on and the tide slowly but surely went against Ahsoka’s favour, she realised that she had to take a gamble if she were to have any hope of beating this seemingly unstoppable foe.

Noticing a destroyed fighter to her left side, probably from the explosions that had been erupting for a while now and had steadily been getting worst, soon formed a plan that either would be brilliant or would end disastrously.

Dodging a thrust, Ahsoka suddenly force pushes the Dal’Kaveen towards a star fighter, gaining a mocking chuckle in response.

"Is this what the little girl thinks will stop me?" He began as he slowly stood back up directly in front of the hull of the fighter. "A little push here and a little push there?"

"No. I was going to do this as well." Ahsoka replies with a smile and the familiar sense of ‘snippiness’ that had caused Anakin to give the girl her nickname.

Without warning, Ahsoka suddenly uses the force to lift one of the wings from the destroyed fighter she saw earlier and propelled it towards the Dal’Kaveen; where it hits him directly and propels both the wing and him into the previously undamaged ship and causing a small explosion to emit due to the impact.

After a brief sense of shock that her plan worked, Ahsoka nearly collapses onto the floor laughing to herself in relief. She knew that Obi-wan and Anakin were still facing the assassin but in that split-second she couldn’t help but breathe in her victory.

That was until she soon noticed the rubble moving suddenly. To her shock and horror, the form of a man whose cloak was now all but destroyed, revealing only his black armour and his yellow visors that gave almost a demonic look to the man who was surrounded by fire, his lightsabers still in his hands.

But how? He should be dead!

The demon like man without hesitation leapt into the air, landing directly in front of Ahsoka who was still in the process of getting to her feet and raining furious blows down on her. The sheer intensity of his attacks causes Ahsoka to drop her lightsaber shoto as he pushes her further behind, Ahsoka barely blocking the increase of attacks.

Unfortunately for Ahsoka the lack of a second blade gives her foe ample room to slash a narrow cut on her left leg, causing the Padawan to fall to the floor. The Dal’Kaveen as she does so slices her lightsaber in two and destroying it in the process, before standing directly above Ahsoka with the tip of his main blade pointed at her chest.

"It’s over." He states simply, his breaths slightly deeper than before. A sudden noise, like an engine of some kind, causes him to look up briefly before speaking once again:

"Looks like my men sent me a ship to escape on. How kind of them, shame you won’t be able to see it." He concludes before preparing to strike her down, getting interrupted by the familiar shouting of Anakin across the far end of the platform.

"AHSOKA!" He cries, causing the Dal’Kaveen to stop his attack, even though the Jedi Knight was still fighting Kaylin and could not help her.

Before either of them could do or say anything, a large Ping like noise is heard, followed closely by a large explosion that was near the two of them.

What happened next was just a blur.

Ahsoka having been blasted from the explosion is hurled across the hanger platform, multiple new areas of her body starting to hurt to various different degrees of pain.

As she looks up it becomes obvious that she wouldn’t be able to stay conscious for much longer, her vision being blurred with dark tinges at the edges being the confirmation.

The last thing she saw before falling unconscious was the arrival of a mysterious ship, the faded lights of the lightsabers being used in battle as fire swept through the hanger bay, the ship finally starting to destroy itself properly and a dark, ominous black hand that was covered in dust coming directly for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everybody, I just want to say a huge thank you for all the support this story has gotten and my apologies for keeping you lot waiting so long.
> 
> Question - would you folks be interested in a clone wars bounty hunter setting? OC filled mostly but will be involving known characters as well. Thoughts? Let me know in the comments


	20. Wake up

“Urgh...” Ahsoka groaned to herself, her eyes briefly fluttering before closing her eyes again to her slumber.

Why does my head hurt? 

As she tried to go back to sleep, Ahsoka subconsciously rubbed the right side of her forehead where her travelling hands soon uncovered a slight gash that whilst nearly healed still sent a surprisingly sharp jolt of pain.

Urgh... and I thought Master Yoda’s lectures were the only thing that could make my head hurt...

It was then that she noticed how soft the pillows and covers were, how smooth they were and how they were just the most comfortable set of luxuries that Ahsoka had ever experienced in her life.

I never knew the Temple had such good pillows... are these a ‘masters only’ item or something... lucky...

...

Wait a minute... 

At that moment all of the recent memories came back to her like a tidal wave. The mission, the attack and the explosions. The masked man. The assassin. It all came back. The sudden wave of memory caused Ahsoka to sit straight up from the bed, all sense of sleep gone instantly from her mind.

Looking around, it became obvious that she wasn’t anywhere that she would call home. The room she was in was small, but spacious enough to not only have what Ahsoka considered to be the best bed she has ever slept in but also a sizeable table in front of the bed with a few chairs with it, white cushions on them that from just looking at them the Padawan knew how good they would be. To the right of her a large window filled the entirety of the wall revealing a seemingly calm garden filled with pebbles and a few old trees splashed around the sea of rocks, the swaying of the leaves from the wind almost hypnotic to the girl.

A brief cough soon drew Ahsoka’s eyes to the left of the room where to her surprise and slight annoyance was an elderly guard. Apart from an almost white and gray suit of armour, a mixture of robes and armour forming the set and yellow markings in an unreadable language covering parts of the chest plate and the robe ‘skirt’ that covered most of the man’s legs with an opening in front revealing his them (it reminded Ahsoka of the Kama that Rex would wear), It was the man’s face that drew her attention. He had bright orange eyes, vibrant in life despite belonging to a tired face, wrinkles on his forehead and under his eyes revealing his age; his long dark grey hair on the sides and back of his head stopping before they could reach the top, leaving an almost sparkling bald top.

His left hand was cradling a lightsaber, Ahsoka realised, on his belt as he stared directly at her, void of any emotion on his face, his back against the only door that she could see.

A door that soon opened to reveal a familiar figure, the woman’s scar dispensing any hint of doubt in Ahsoka’s mind as the figure, clad in gray robes and white gauntlets with her curved lightsaber on her belt as the she looked up with a slightly bemused smile.

“Ah I see you’ve finally come to.” Kaylin stated, her smile widening slightly at Ahsoka’s deepening frown.

“Oh don’t look so doom and gloom, Rhom here has been guarding you from anyone that may have wished you harm. Isn’t that right Rhom?” She asked, turning her head slightly to glance at the man, Rhom giving a slight nod in answer of her question.

“Where am I? Why am I even still alive?” Ahsoka demanded, her eyes staring directly at the assassin, who held her hands up in a slightly mocking jest.

“Don’t ask me Ahsoka, it wasn’t me who saved you from an exploding ship, that honour belonging to my master. He’ll tell you why soon enough.” Kaylin states as she lowers her hand.

“Rhom will show you to my master when you eventually get out of bed, so you’ll get your answers soon I assure you.” She concludes as she heads back out of the room, Rhom giving another nod and a click of his heels as she walked out, calling out to a shocked and worried Ahsoka with a wave:

“See you there Ahsoka.”


	21. Reports

“This... is most disturbing Master Kenobi.” Mace Windu states slowly, his body hunched over with his hands together, looking at Kenobi with interest in his chair in the temple; Master Yoda and other council members with various faces of worry, surprise and even horror for a few.

“Are you sure they were prepared for your arrival?” Master Kit Fisto asked his green skin and large black eyes tinged with discomfort.

“I am certain Master Fisto, from the report Anakin gave me it is clear that these... people had sent someone onboard to disable the ship for an assault and then when I arrived with reinforcements we were greeted by up to five enemy vessels, their designs nothing I have ever seen before, which were far superior to our own. We were lucky to escape when we did.” Kenobi replies as he watches his fellow councillors in their seats from his own chair.

“They were led by this individual, this picture salvaged from the Resolute by Admiral Yularen before her demise. From what I’ve been told, Masters Luminara and Skywalker said that he was referred to only by the ‘Dal’Kaveen’. A title if I might take a guess.” As he spoke, a projection came up filling the council room as it did so, showing a hologram of the individual in question, the man caught in the middle of slashing several clones with his purple lightsaber, his mask and yellow visors creating the appearance of a demonic madman. The projection is only viewed in silence as the council took in the sight. 

He could see it in each of their eyes, the mixture of feelings of such news. Despite the fact that several members of the council had witnessed horrors on the battlefield, this... this was incredibly horrifying for them. The fact that they had not known about these people for so long worried them greatly.

“And the casualties of this attack? How many survived?” Master Aayla Secura, a blue skinned female with two head tails coming down from her head, asked as her hologram flickered every now and then.

“We lost three of our cruisers, two of Anakin’s fleet including his flagship and one from mine, and the number of clone casualties’ number over 65% of Anakin’s men on his ship and 15% of the men that I had brought with me to his assist him. Nearly all of Anakin’s fighters were destroyed as well as a small portion of my own. It is also safe to presume that it was they who also destroyed the missing ships we were sent to look for.” Kenobi concludes sombrely, his statement leaving the council speechless.

“Are they working for Dooku?” Master Shaak Ti asks hesitantly, the implications possibly affecting the way the war would continue.

“No. We encountered the remains of the fleeing Separatist ship. No this faction is independent.”

“How did we not know about these people Master Yoda? Nothing in the archives states to their existence.” Kenobi asks gently, noting the old master’s silence and taking worry from it.

“Darkness... Clouds us it does. Not all seeing as we thought, it appears.” The wise alien says sagely, nodding his head ever so gently and closing his eyes briefly.

“Is there anything else to note, Kenobi?” Windu asks, his eyes seemingly piercing Kenobi’s body out of pure habit.

“Yes, Padawan Barriss Offee was critically injured; she lost her left arm and is currently being treated in the medbay.” Kenobi stumbles with his words for a split second, the meaning of them saddening him greatly. “We... we lost Padawan Ahsoka Tano, she was taken captive by these attackers after engaging this ‘Dal’Kaveen’.” His words cause a slight stop of emotion from them all, the loss of such a gifted student a saddening thought.

“Then I fear that we have lost her. We will prepare the burial chambers for her loss. Kenobi, patrol the border of the Unknown Region with Skywalker, we don’t want any surprises.” Mace Windu states calmly, seemingly not dwelling on the fate of Ahsoka at all, irking Kenobi slightly with his attitude.

She was my friend Mace. Not a pet. Anakin’s mourning her and you don’t seem to care.

Kenobi curtly says “Of course Master Windu.” Before beginning to head out of the chamber before Yoda stops him.

“Obi-wan... Watch Skywalker you must. Unpredictable he may be. A close friend you are.” He says in a near whisper, Kenobi nodding before leaving the chambers.

Anakin won’t like this.


	22. Meetings

It was a fair ten minute walk to Ahsoka’s apparent destination, Rhom walking slightly ahead of her yet still cradling his lightsaber.

Just in case she thought to herself.

The teenager didn’t get to see much as she went on her merry way. All she had seen were some light gray walls, markings and engravings of many a man and woman, all slightly distorted for whatever reason and all fighting.

Not the best sign if I’ve ever seen one she grimaced to herself at the thought.

There weren’t many people that she had seen either, she realised. She had only seen a pair of warriors, both clad in a mixture of robes and white armour, one a man and the other a woman. When she was walking past them, the duo had momentarily stopped to stare at her, their eyes seemingly analysing every detail about her. Rhom stepped in front of their line of sight before they could gain anything noteworthy and gave them an irritated nod down the corridor, the couple hurriedly moving forward, whispers talking excitedly about this stranger.

Looks like Rhom is known around here.

It was unnerving however how it seemed like they had never met her kind before, which may prove troublesome further down the line.  
As she began contemplating what this could mean for her, Rhom stopped directly in front of her, nearly causing her to collide right into his back, stopping just short of such an embarrassment. Stepping aside of him Ahsoka soon caught sight of two heavily armoured soldiers, their completely plated white armour and yellow markings not distinguishing their gender and faces being covered by heavily decorated helmets, generally white with yellow outlines and a yellow visor connecting between the eyes. The fact that where their mouths would be were large carved fangs in a chilling smile made their appearance all the more menacing. Looking to their sides, the teenager noticed that they were holding lightsaber pikes; lightsabers with extended hilts that in length went from their shoulders to their waists. 

A gruff distorted mumble turned her attention back to her escort, Rhom giving her a brief nod towards the door, his tired eyes showing an extreme sense of wariness at her in general. Taking the hint, Ahsoka slowly started to move forward, watching to see if the guards would try anything. When they didn’t move to apprehend her, she took another step forward and then another and another until she was standing at the door, the armoured monstrosities directly either side of her. 

Here goes nothing Ahsoka thought with a slight bead of sweat coming down the side of her head.

Pushing the door forward Ahsoka stepped into the room and came across a large room. Highly decorated with paintings, the walls were vibrant with a multitude of colours. It was slightly awe inspiring, if it weren’t for what was in front of her. She had thought that the Jedi temple had the gardens that the galaxy envied but this one was something in itself. The trees were beautiful with a mixture of green and yellow leaves combined with the mass amounts of pink fruit the likes she had never seen before, large, round and filled with juices. The floor to the outside garden was assorted with a sea of white pebbles all around the trees; the island of grass the only thing that didn’t have any pebbles on it, along with a small pathway that lead to it, large enough to hold two people astride each other.

It was then that she noticed the guards stationed all around the room, all wearing the same demon like armour that the first two had worn, all six of them standing at attention and ready to be called if needed. They hadn’t physically moved once since Ahsoka came in but she could feel them, their suspicious and accusing glares sending chills down her spine.

Focusing on what she could only perceive to be her destination, Ahsoka started to head towards the island within the pebbles. As she got closer, Ahsoka could see the two figures on the island; one of them was standing slightly behind the other in a relaxed arm stance, his hands behind his back (it reminded her of Rex actually) and the other sitting down on an ancient chair, his back straightened and his hands on the top of his knees, watching as the Togrutan moved closer and closer.

It became obvious as she got closer to them that the man standing was Commander Daggen, his large yet surprisingly well maintained beard, moving every so often due to the wind pushing it, giving his stature a unique and memorable look. He seemed to be still in his same armour and clothes when she last saw him; his gauntlets and chest plate being the most obvious despite Ahsoka finding the not-so-discreet blaster pistols on either side of his under armpits and his arms crossed over. The man sitting down however was not familiar at all, though it was obvious that he was important to these people if the large amount of men guarding him were any indication. He was muscular even beneath his long gray robes, his arms revealing the muscle that he had. He had medium sized brown hair that went down to the halfway point of his neck. The man also had a strong jaw line, which gave him a fearsome appearance. The most interesting thing about him was his clear blue eyes, like the open sea, that seemed to pierce into your soul.

That was what he was doing at that exact moment as Ahsoka stood before them, her back straight and her fists clenched in defiance. They stood like that, all of them standing firm against the breezing air, before after what seemed like eternity the mystery man finally spoke up. His voice was smooth yet firm and cold at the same time.

“Leave us.” He states, causing Daggen to instantly bow low and march past Ahsoka, who turned around to see that the guards in the room were also vacating the premises.

“Sit.” The man’s voice calls out, drawing Ahsoka back to him, gently lowering herself onto the ground, her eyes never leaving his.

After a moment of nothing but silence and the battle of stares, Ahsoka clears her throat and attempts to gain some information.

“Why am I here? Who are you? Where is my master?” She asks in a slightly hurried yet still firm tone, her eyes never leaving his.

“You’re here because I saved you. I was the man you faced before losing consciousness.” He replies calmly, a small almost serene smile like what a teacher would wear for an accomplishing student.

“You. You’re the-”

“The Dal’Kaveen? Yes I am.” He cuts her off.

“Where are we?”

“My home of course.” A small chuckle escapes his lips. “Rhom has made sure that you were safe and my daughter has kept you comfortable during your rest. You should thank Kaylin for that by the way, it would be rude not to.” He says with a slow yet casual pace, taking his time in front of the impatient girl whose mind was reeling.

How do I get out of here? Must be something I can use. I don’t want to be stuck with the terrifying father-daughter duo!

“Relax. Your feelings reveal too much of what you wouldn’t want to admit. Have no fear; no harm will come to you.” The Dal’Kaveen states calmly and assuredly.

“Why?” Ahsoka demanded.

“What is your name?” The Dal’Kaveen says, ignoring the question as he pours some tea for the two of them. “My name is Shay Horis. Now your turn.”

“... Ahsoka. Ahsoka Tano.” She replies after a second of pause.

I’m not in control!

“I shall be frank with you. Not everyone here will like you, but I will make sure you will be comfortable. You are stuck here till the clouds dissipate.”

“Clouds?” Ahsoka asks, confused.

“The Nillion Clouds, so dense an electromagnetic field that no ship can get through them. Neither your Jedi friends can come to us nor we to them.”

I’m stuck here?

“Yes you are.” He states, seemingly reading her thoughts, which worried Ahsoka greatly. “Who knows for how long? It changes every time. Sometimes a few days, then a few weeks or even over a decade.”

Suddenly Shay stands up, surprising Ahsoka who jumps back up as well.

“As much as I like this talk, I’m afraid I have work to do. Rhom will show you to Kaylin who will give you the tour.” He states, heading up the pathway, Ahsoka staring speechless before shouting back.

“WHY?”

“Why not?” He replies without turning to face her, still moving away from her with his arms crossed behind his back and an amused smile where she can’t see him.


	23. Grief

“What do you mean we can’t go back?” Anakin shouted to his close friend, who was remaining calm despite the wave of anger and disbelief that was being sent his way, his face wide with fury.

“Anakin calm down let me explain-” Obi-wan began, moving towards his former Padawan, before getting cut off by Anakin.

“What is there to explain? Ahsoka is stuck out there with those monsters, probably enduring whatever horrors they can think of, and you’re telling me that I can’t rescue her.” He shouts, his words dripping with venom as he speaks.

“If it was up to me then I would help you Anakin, I truly would. She was my friend too. But the council simply won’t allow it.” Obi-wan continued looking around the room as he does so, before sitting down on the only seat in Anakin’s quarters.

“I know that Obi-wan, it’s not you I’m blaming. The council... they’re so easy to abandon one of their own. Even after everything Ahsoka has done for them, everything she had to see in this war... It’s not right Obi-wan.” Anakin states with a sigh, placing his head on the large window due to his fatigue, his sadness paramount.

“I know Anakin, I know. The council... they just believe that however much Ahsoka has done for them in the name of ending this war, they won’t send a fleet of cruisers for just one person. And before you say anything Anakin,” He states as he see’s Anakin raising his head to comment, “We will have to send a fleet. Anything less and these people will destroy them. They did it before and they’ll do it again.”

“What will stop them from coming to us? They’ve had two victories against us Obi-wan, what makes you think they won’t stop with just that?” He asks.

“The Council and Chancellor Palpatine agree that it would be foolish to leave us open to attack. That’s why there will always be a fleet of ships nearby the Unknown Regions in case these people do appear. Master Plo Koon will be in control of that fleet for the time being.” Obi-wan states, in an attempt to ease Anakin’s worries.

His statement is only meet by silence as Anakin looks back at the window, where the busy life of citizens in Coruscant go about their day.

Standing back up and moving to place a hand on Anakin’s shoulder, Obi-wan audibly sighs before stating the one thing that Anakin would not want to hear.

“Anakin, it is a big possibility that Ahsoka... is dead. I know you don’t want to hear it and I myself don’t want to consider it but that is more than likely what has happened. It is hard Anakin but... I think it is time that we must let her go.” He says his voice low and soft so that only Anakin could hear it.

“I understand Master.” Anakin replies after a moment of tense silence, nodding to reassure his old master.

Obi-wan, knowing Anakin long enough to know when he needs time alone, pats him briefly on the shoulder before heading out of the room; a solemn look to his normally cheerful face.

Left on his own, Anakin closes his eyes in despair before it morphs into a hideous look of anger, his eyes shining yellow as he suddenly turns around and viscously punches the wall with his robotic hand, a fist sized hole now left where he hit.

Panting slightly the Chosen One’s anger turns to sadness and despair, his eyes turning back to their normal blue as he crumbles to the ground, the anger the only thing to seemingly keep him on his feet.

It was there that he started to grieve.


	24. Reasons

“Permission to speak my lord?” Daggen asks as he follows Shay’s tenacious pace, the term walking being used loosely if not at all, the man’s face very serious and any amusement he had from the conversation with Ahsoka had vanished.

“Yes Daggen?” He replies, his face still looking forward as the pair ‘walk’ down the long corridor, flanked by two of his personal guards; their white armour glistening as they walked calmly behind the duo, fast enough to stay in Shay’s vicinity but left a big enough gap to give him and Daggen some level of privacy.

“If I may be so bold my lord but why are so lenient on the girl?” Daggen asked, his voice revealing his confusion on the move.

“Why shouldn’t I be?” Shay responds, his tone slightly perplexed by the question.

“She was a commander of the invading force, a part of the Jedi Order and will most likely attempt to kill you the first chance she gets.” Daggen states in a mater-of-fact tone.

“She’s a child Daggen-”

“She tried to kill you my lord. Being a child doesn’t protect her from that or the consequences of it.”

“She was used as a weapon, a tool to kill whoever is in her way. You can’t blame her for that.” Shay states, glancing to his closest confidant to see Daggen with a face of disbelief.

“From what I’ve been told she was more than keen to take your life.”

“Kaylin exaggerates.”

“You understate it.”

A brief silence fills the space between the two companions, before a heavy sigh escape Shay’s lips.

“I understand your concern Daggen, I truly do. However I need you to trust me with what I am doing. Can you do that my friend?” Shay asks, stopping in front of two large wooden doors that reached the ceiling, carvings chiselled into the wood depicting a harrowing scene of war; men in white armour seemingly fighting off dozens of horrifying monsters.

“Aye my lord, I will trust your judgement. However I will say that that girl didn’t attain the rank of Commander for nothing.” Daggen warns, bowing slightly as he concludes his statement as he starts to head back in the direction that they had come from.

“Noted.” Shay replies in a whisper, opening the great doors as he does so with a great heave.

As he entered the room, flanked by his guards, a large circular table that was silver in colour due to it being made out of metal immediately came into view. Around it were thirteen seats, twelve of them currently occupied by men and woman, in the flesh or via a hologram that could only be described as some of the toughest, ruthless and most loyal people Shay has ever known.

Each one of these people stood up and bowed as the Dal’Kaveen took his place in the last remaining chair at the circle, everyone else following suit.

“We all know why we are here today so let’s skip any and all unnecessary pleasantries and get to the matter at hand. Approximately two weeks ago, several vessels entered our solar system. We know this because a small group of cruisers that were practising military tactics and procedures were in the sector when these vessels arrived. They were promptly fired upon by all four of these mysterious cruisers. Thankfully due to the tactics and bravery of Captain Sterling and his men, they were able to destroy this threat. In accordance to protocol myself and Admiral Kaine,” Shay briefly nods his head across the table, where a hologram of the veteran admiral nodded in recognition. “Travelled to the sector and waited for possible reinforcements.”

“Let me guess Milord but I assume ye encountered some visitors.” The accented voice of Commander Argon Coven, dark blonde hair and an intricate goatee being the main point of the small near late thirties mans appearance, interrupted with a smile.

“To put it bluntly, yes we did.” Admiral Kaine called out, his tone of voice making it very clear to Coven to stay quiet.

“We successfully repelled the invading fleet and gained a prisoner in the process.” Shay continued.

“Ah yes this Jedi Padawan I’ve heard so much about. I would much like to have a... conversation with her.” The resident Spymaster, Krava Drayson, asked with the most innocent of smiles that she could muster on her surprisingly young freckled face, the smile combined with a ginger ponytail presenting the image of an innocent teenager than one of the most important and ruthless woman on the planet.

“Aye ‘cause all of ye ‘conversations’ go ever so well for your new ‘friend.” Coven shot at the young lady, who merely smiled to him in response.

“As much as her ways are... debatable, Coven, she has a point. We need to find out what she knows whether willingly or otherwise.” Kaine concludes wearily.

“From the reports that I’ve been given, the poor thing’s only a child for Dal’Ka’s sake-” Coven fires back passionately.

“Debatable.” Drayson counters.

“- We can’t hand her over to our resident interrogator here and expect her to come out of it unscathed.” Coven concludes, ignoring Draysons snide comment, pointing to her at the word ‘interrogator’.

“We won’t.” Shay says simply.

“My lord I must insist, if we don’t know anything important from her then we are left with a disadvantage-“ Drayson begins, her surprise evident in her mannerisms and tone, before getting cut off by Shay.

“I will not have the girl end up a corpse, Krava!” The Dal’Kaveen shouts at the spymaster, slamming his left fist down hard on the table.

“I will find out everything she knows myself, my own way,” Shay raises a single finger to silence the soon to be interrupting Drayson. “Ahsoka will give the information willingly and as a free person, not a prisoner.”

“And how will you accomplish this lord? She is a stubborn one if what you’ve told me is correct.” Kaine asks, his one eye peering into Shay’s own.

“By turning her into one of us, learning our ways, our teachings and such. I shall be her teacher.”

“I Like it milord.” Coven says, nodding his head in approval.

“Risky though.” Drayson responds, her pessimistic attitude showing.

“I will take all precautions necessary.” Shay replies to help soothe his comrade’s worries.

“She is our best chance at finding out anything useful; my men are still attempting to find anything salvageable from the destroyed cruisers that would give us any information.” Kaine reminds Shay, who starts to stand up from his seat.

“Understood Admiral. For now the Nillion Clouds have brought us time. How much I don’t know but until then we must be ready for any attacks in the future. This meeting has concluded.” Shay states as he starts to leave the grand hall, the depictions of past heroes looking down on him as he does so.

“Why do you want to teach her yourself my lord? Surely someone else could do this task.” Kaine asks, stopping Shay briefly.

“I have my reasons my friend, reasons that could answer many a question in my head.” He replies, heading out of the room as he finishes speaking.


	25. The Tour

This is boring Ahsoka concluded.  
She was in between the pair of Rhom, who whilst old could still take her down easily Ahsoka thought, and Kaylin who for some reason acted like the two girls were best friends rather than grave enemies, her smile wide on her face as she explained what these rooms uses were. The two of them were escorting her through the entire Villa of Shay’s estate, though Kaylin would sooner reply that she was merely a tour guide and was showing Ahsoka what her new home would look like the Togruta imagined; and were showing her around what would be the meditation rooms if she had to guess.  
You’d think that the leader of a tyrannical Empire would be more... exciting in his sense of taste Ahsoka thought.  
“Bland isn’t it.” Kaylin asked, turning herself towards Ahsoka who barely heard the assassin, the Padawan having been buried deep in her thoughts.  
“Umm... well...” Ahsoka started, not sure as to what to say in front of her captors.  
Does she want me to agree with her or to actually be honest?  
Before she could think up an answer, Rhom suddenly and forcefully grabs her shoulder and drags her to a more closed off room to the side, it having no windows meaning that shadows nearly covered the entirety of the room; pushing her forward and causing her to fall to the ground.  
“You have no idea the amount of trouble your presence here truly is.” Kaylin says with a more serious tone, her smile gone as she closes the door behind her; leaving the three of them in the dark abyss of the closet.  
“What’s that supposed to mean? If I’m such a trouble to you, why am I here?” Ahsoka responded in defiance, wary of doing anything too aggressive unless Rhom decides to step in.  
A short, mocking laugh calls out before Kaylin responds “You are here because my master and father saved you from certain death Ahsoka don’t forget that.” A short breath through her nose and her body loosens up from the previous moment’s intensity, but only by a small margin. “Your presence here has caused a divide between the members of the military and members of Dal’Ka. Some see you as the harbinger of a new war and therefore must... extract information from you before beginning a new campaign against your Republic.”  
“A new war? What was the first one?” Ahsoka asks, a sense of worry creeping up her spine.  
“Never mind what the old war was, focus on the potential torture and death that may await you.” Kaylin responds back with some urgency.  
“Then what’s going to happen? What are Shay’s thoughts on this?”  
“My father and I agree that we don’t want another war. Not again, not so soon. It helps your case that he senses that the reason you came here is not what it may seem. That and your heritage.” Kaylin remarks.  
“What do you mean my heritage? What are you saying?” Ahsoka started to say, her voice rising in tension and unease.  
Heritage! What heritage? And if they can’t seem to stay on check with their own people, then I’m not as safe as they claim to be the case.  
“That doesn’t matter right now. All that matters is that we’re on the same page. Are we, Ahsoka? Do you trust that I, my father and everyone here is here to help you, and only you but we also need to make sure that we can trust you.”  
“Do I have a choice?” Ahsoka remarks wearily.  
“Not really but it will sure help.” Kaylin replies, a small smile on her face again as she starts to pull Ahsoka back onto her feet. “Sorry about Rhom, he was just making sure we were not in the open; prying ears are everywhere.”  
“It’s forgiven.” Ahsoka states after briefly patting herself down, nodding to Rhom in recognition, the silent warrior responding with a nod of his own.  
“Right, shall we continue the tour?”  
~ ~ ~  
“Who are the members of Dal’Ka?” Ahsoka asks, curiosity peaking after they just entered one of the corridors that left the ball room that they were just in.  
“We follow the faith of our saviour and protector Dal’Ka, otherwise known as Dal’Ka the first, whom sent us here on his chosen crusade. It is his teaching about the ways of the force and how we must use it that defines us as one of the Dal’Ka’s chosen, the chosen being those who are gifted with force sensitivity.” Kaylin responds a hint of enthusiasm clear in voice as she notes the curiosity of her younger patron.  
Before she could respond, Rhom who was about to go round a sharp corner to the left, quickly raises his hand to stop us in our tracks.  
“What is it?” Ahsoka asks, noting the slight unease in Rhom’s face, something that made her all the more worried.  
Peeking around the corner, Kaylin gives what is obviously a cussing word in her language before turning back to them.  
“Rhom get her out of here.”  
“What is it?” Ahsoka replied in a more annoyed tone.  
“It’s Krava Drayson, our spymaster. The one person you should hope to never be alone in a room with.” Kaylin states drearily, looking back to find the contingent of spymaster and her personal bodyguards moving steadily at a determined pace; her reasons for coming here all the more obvious.  
“Go. Now.” Kaylin states, pushing them back the way they came, Rhom pushing Ahsoka ahead of him as Kaylin stands out in the open, distracting the spymaster.  
“And why do I owe the pleasure of your presence Krava?” Kaylin called out, her smile and pleasant tone nearly unbearably obvious that she in fact hated the woman’s guts.  
“Where is she Kaylin? Tell me now!” Krava commands as she heads at an even faster walk, her strides carrying her directly in front of Kaylin.  
“Whoever could you mean?”  
“The Jedi cur of course, don’t play games with me Kaylin, I have the Dal’Kaveen’s personal permission that I ask her some questions.” Krava stated with impatience, her good looks vanishing behind her anger.  
“Funny. Shay never told me of this arrangement.” Kaylin remarks with stone coldness, her smile now gone.  
“Of course he wouldn’t Kaylin, you’re not his daughter, remember.” Krava fires back before pushing Kaylin out of her way, her men following her with dead cold precision.  
~ ~ ~  
Following Rhom, who was walking at a furious rate, Ahsoka could only wonder where she was going.  
Her answer was soon answered when a small door appeared, Rhom striding towards it with even more determination.  
“Where does that lead? Rhom, where?” Ahsoka asked, receiving no response from her older escort as he pulled open the door to reveal the near dark sky, a servant frightened at the complete unexpectedness of what was transpiring.  
A servant’s entrance.  
The servant rushing past, Rhom pushes Ahsoka out of the door, the Padawan confused at what he was thinking.  
Seeing him stay inside the doorway she asks. “Aren’t you coming with me, make sure I don’t escape?” She is surprised by the man’s shake of the head, who decided to turn back to see approaching guardsmen who were shouting for them to stop.  
Turning back to face her, he utters a single word and the first one she had ever heard from him, his old yet strong deep voice confirming what he wanted her to do before he closed the door firmly shut; her last gaze of him turning back to face the guardsmen.  
“Run.”


	26. On the Run

Run.  
That was what he had told her.  
Run.  
That was exactly what she was going to do.  
Ahsoka was running straight through the thick brambles of the trees, the darkness clouding her vision as the trees made the night even more terrifying since she had left over an hour ago.  
Alone, hurt and on the run from numerous people that want to torture and then kill me in the most gruesome fashion possible. Just typical.  
The still recovering wound on her left leg, seemingly listening to her thoughts, stung with furious anger as branches slapped hard on the leg; Ahsoka running with a slight limp as a result of it. Unfortunately for her, the flashes of sharp light trying to light the forest up behind Ahsoka meant that she couldn’t afford to have any time to rest.  
If they got past Rohm then it’s probably better that I don’t get caught.  
Despite the old man maintaining a relatively cold and distant distance from her since she was brought here, Ahsoka couldn’t help but to feel some sense of worry for the man; he was old after all, probably in his sixties by any indication, and was the only figure that Ahsoka had seen that had always been ready to protect her and not dismember her limb from limb. Something that neither Kaylin nor Shay can claim wasn’t what they had tried to do to her before.  
Ahsoka could hear shouts now from increasingly closer voices; guards shouting out to each other for possible sightings of the ‘Jedi’. Her leg now throbbing in pain, Ahsoka couldn’t help but stop and quickly hide behind a large oak tree, resting on her right knee as she tried to soothe her pain ridden leg.  
This blasted knee’s gonna kill me!  
She soon noticed a short distance ahead of her, was a clearing in the trees.  
Better for me to hide in the long grass and not the maze of perpetual darkness filled with gun-toting soldiers.  
“I see her, she’s in the trees!” A male voice cried out, his light pointing straight at the oak tree that apparently failed to hide the Togruta.  
Ahsoka, startled by the sudden voice of alarm, realises its do or die and sprints towards the clearing as best she could, her leg slowing her down slightly as multiple lights narrowed on her and piecing shouts filled the air.  
Blaster fire whizzed past her, light blue streaks of light rushing at a blinding speed, Ahsoka doing her best to dodge them; her speed, whilst hampered by her injury, still allowed her to gain ground from her attackers.  
A soldier in near black armour and a short cloak over his right shoulder, runs into her path from ahead with speed; his dark white skull visor giving him the appearance of a dead man as he raised his rifle and fired blindly at her, grazing her right shoulder and causing her to shoulder barge him into the ground with Ahsoka following suit.  
Urgh... stuns.  
Quickly getting up to her knees she viciously strikes him in the back of his knee with a palm, the guard crying out in pain before getting force pushed into a nearby tree and out of the padawans way as she clears the forest.  
Her hope turned into despair as Ahsoka realises she is at a cliffs edge; high above a distant city of lights. Desperately moving forward in the slim hope of a miracle, Ahsoka suddenly gets bombarded by multiple blaster fire from seemingly dozens of skull wearing men and forcing her to crawl to the edge despite the pain coursing through her, panting slightly as she struggles to move.  
Looking back through exhausted eyes Ahsoka could only watch as a woman with a mocking smirk strides towards her, her guards lighting her up with their lights.  
Oh just end it then, coward.  
“Krava!” A male voice shouts in righteous fury, forcing both Krava and Ahsoka to look back to see a furious and enraged Shay Horis, flanked by Kaylin and Rhom.  
“Shay... What are you doing here?” A suddenly terrified Krava asks, whispering his name as a shiver goes down her spine and her eyes wide with fear. Ahsoka slowly starts to crawl away once again, simply wishing for this nightmare to end.  
“Leave. Now.” Shay states ominously in a cold voice, pacing ahead until he is at eye level with Krava.  
“But Milord if you let me explain...” The spymaster begins to state before a look of deadly warning kills the words from her mouth.  
“I will deal with you later. Now take your thugs and go.” Shay coldly concludes before pushing past her, Kaylin and Rhom following his lead; both giving her their own stares of anger.  
Enough of this. I’ve had enough.  
Standing upwards once more and now at the very edge, Ahsoka turns back with a steel look in her eyes at the approaching party.  
“Not one step closer!” She shouts, causing Shay to quickly stop his comrades in their tracks and gaining Krava and her guard’s full attention.  
“Easy Ahsoka, let’s not do anything drastic-”  
“No! I’m sick of these lies. What now, are you going to chain me up like an animal until I spill any useful information? I’d rather die than risk my friend’s lives!” Ahsoka cries out in a wave of emotion.  
A frantic and worried Shay quickly signals his daughter and friend back, pushing them back towards the soldiers, before ever so slowly taking a step forward.  
“Please don’t do this Ahsoka. Your selflessness is admirable but please don’t take your own life because of it. I will tell you what you want to know, but just come back from the edge.” He pleads with a caring tone to his voice, his entire face worried for her well-being. He slowly takes out his two lightsabers, briefly causing Ahsoka to tense, before dropping them to the ground.  
“See, no weapons. Just let me talk to you.” He asks her.  
Taking her silence as an answer, Shay steps forward again until he is side by side from her, looking down at her with concern. Ahsoka however, not able to bear the pain any longer, falls to her knees, waving off any attempt to help from Shay.  
“What did Kaylin mean by my ‘heritage’?” Tell me!” She asks through gritted teeth, her eyes focused on Shay’s.  
“... The reason why I saved you when we fought was because of your name. It’s a fairly common name here on Omnilus but not on your side of the galaxy. A strand in the force beckoned me to investigate so I saved you and took blood samples from you. You have blood found from my people Ahsoka.” He whispers.  
“But... my parents-”  
“Belong to my people; therefore, you are one of my people.” He almost fidgets from the discomfort of what he is saying. “That means I must help you in guiding your own future where you can fully understand where you belong.”  
“Then why did you attack our ships? Why kill our men?” She pleads a sense of desperation and confusion evident as she still struggles to come to terms with his answer.  
“They attacked one of our patrolling vessels. We believed it was a declaration of war and so acted accordingly. We still did but mere hours ago when our men salvaged some of your ship’s terminals and telling us the real reason why your here.” Guilt echoed from his voice then, a sense of shame for bringing the deaths of his men perhaps, Ahsoka didn’t know.  
“Then all of this?”  
“Was a misunderstanding. One that can be rectified.” Shay states with a small sense of hope.  
“How?” Ahsoka asks.  
“Ahsoka, you have the blood of my people yet you have lived a Jedi. You are the perfect person to help bridge our people together in peace.”  
“What, are you mad I’m barely an adult and you want to make me an ambassador to what could possibly be the biggest peace talks in history?” Ahsoka spews out, her shock at the notion obvious.  
“If I can teach you the culture that we live and you teach me yours we can help both of our civilisations from a war neither wants.” Shay argues.  
“But-”  
“I swear. No harm will come to you whilst I live and I will attempt to find your family. I beg of you, please help me save the sons and daughters that would die if we do nothing.”  
Ahsoka looks at him for what felt like an eternity, studying his face that was filled with hope and sadness. She slowly sighs through her mouth in almost frustration before looking Shay dead in the eye and saying “let’s go save our people.”  
Shay smiles brightly, whispering a single thank you to the young woman, before helping Ahsoka up to her feet and almost carrying her back due to the immense pain that was still coursing through her body, not checking to see Kaylin and Rhom walking besides them protectively; the old man picking up Shay’s lightsabers from the ground before joining them.


	27. On Notice

Krava was, despite her attempts at denying it within herself, quite terrified. She had attempted to capture and interrogate, though others would say kidnap and torture, the Jedi scum for information. This wouldn’t have been a problem under normal standards but she had gone directly against her lord, which could prove a fatal error.  
She was currently standing in a resting military position, her arms behind her back, as she waited for Shay’s appearance in his office. A single engraved wooden desk was in front of her along with a small tree plant growing near one of the corners of the door. The windows revealed how early in the morning it was; the dark blue slowly turning lighter with each passing minute.

He’s too damn soft when it comes to children. I know his past must keep rearing its head when he sees a child due to his rather... unfortunate history but enough’s enough. Sometimes you have to be blunt and cruel to find out the truth, not poetic and kind. That can be done in peace time.

The whoosh of an opening door gave Krava the indication of her lord’s presence; though the sheer scale of his emotional demeanour through the force had told her of his presence a block before.

Awkwardly she stood there, waiting as Shay slowly sat himself behind his desk; not a single sound made by either of them. He simply stared at her through cold eyes, seemingly studying her like an animal or a hunter stalking his prey.  
To Krava, this seemed like an imminent death sentence.

“How dare you.” He almost whispers to her; pronouncing every word slowly and harshly.

“You went directly against me. You betrayed my trust in this little attempt of yours.”

Krava swallowed hard. “I know I could get results from her my lord. She’s far more cunning than you realise. If you had given me time I would have made her talk.” She said with a slight sense of defiance and stubbornness, Shay couldn’t decide which.

“That may very well be correct Krava. We both know how effective you are in these matters.” He said admittedly.

“Then why did you stop me? I could have had her singing to me within the hour! Why are you deliberately stopping-” She begins, her words growing in height and strength. 

“Because it wasn’t what I had chosen!” Shay shouts with fury and anger, standing up swiftly and staring at Krava with a face that could kill.

“You can’t see the bigger picture. If Ahsoka can help us talk to the Republic to create a peace, we can avoid a war of our own making.” He continues, his voice strained with emotion.

“They will never let the destruction of their ships slide, Shay. When will you realise that we have to prepare-”

“For what, war? You’ve already started to act like we’re in one.” He argues, earning a annoyed look from his spymaster.

“We are already in a war.” She exasperated.

“Not if I can help it. I won’t repeat my ancestor’s mistakes.” He said with a clenched jaw of determination.

“You may have no choice.” She grimly states, earning a brief silence as Shay sighs to himself and sinks back into his chair.

“Leave me Krava.” He states, Krava turning on her heel and heading for the door before Shay’s voice resonates in the room.

“You stepped over a line here spymaster. With what you did to Ahsoka and what you said to my daughter. I will be watching you and your activities very closely. If one thing is out of line...” He warns her.

“... Then I will not last the night. I know.” She states sombrely.

“I am a believer of second chances, Krava. I am not a believer of a third.” His last words meet only silence as Spymaster Drayson walks out of the room; the intention all too clear.

~ ~ ~

Confederacy of Independent systems territories.

On the planet Serenno, the sith lord known as Count Dooku stands waiting for the call of his master. Darth Sidious had wanted to send this message to him personally over a recent altercation in the unknown regions. Dooku had some idea of what had happened; the ships were his after all.

The darkened chamber soon brightened by the appearance of Darth Sidious, his hood leaving nothing but his mouth and chin to be seen despite the light of his hologram.

“My Master.” Dooku crooned.

“Lord Tyranus, we have much to discuss. The pieces on the board have changed.” He states.

“How so my master?”

“A new side of the galaxy has revealed themselves to both the Republic and the Separatists. This presents a unique opportunity my apprentice.”

“Who are these savages my master?” Dooku states with disdain.

“It doesn’t matter who they are. What matters is how we can use them to our advantage.” He answers with a smile.

“If we can push them to declare war on the Republic,” Sidious continued, “then our plans can progress faster than we had originally planned with the two sides fighting against one another.”

“We could control the unknown Regions as well as the Republic. More power.” Dooku concludes with a sinister smile, his grey beard rigid.

“Indeed my apprentice. Power is what the sith strive for. Through power, our chains shall be broken.”

“What will you have me do?” Dooku asked.

“Find out what we know through the galaxies history. It may tell us something that could help our plans. Then prepare my apprentice, prepare. Ready a fleet for their arrival, whenever they do arrive. We cannot be vulnerable to a possible attack. Besides, it would be rude to keep our guests waiting.” Sidious concludes with a dark chuckle before his hologram flickers out; Dooku concluding the conversation with the simple sentence; his eyes dark yellow as he speaks.

“It shall be done my master.”


	28. The City

It had been a few days since the attempted kidnapping. That is what it was Ahsoka thought, a kidnapping.

Based off of what Shay had said and his constant apologies, he had never authorised it.

He had decided that another few days of rest would be best for her so that she could heal from the encounter.

Ahsoka however made great process in any nagging injuries and was now waiting for Shay and Kaylin at the entrance of his villa, ready to leave the place. 

Truth be told, Ahsoka was worried. She was deep in thought, her right shoulder leaning on one of the walls as she stared out towards the forest in front of her. If certain members of his government are willing to go against him, then he may not be able to protect her.

A sudden urge to run into the forest spread through her, but Ahsoka resisted. Running wouldn't solve things. Despite her fears Ahsoka would not run. 

Besides, she thought, Rhom wouldn't like me abandoning him. A small smile breaks through her face at the thought. 

Rhom, for his part, was a respectful ten paces behind her. She could tell that he was watching her. It seemed to be the only thing he does when Ahsoka's around. 

A part of her wanted to thank him for stalling those soldiers but she never did. When she thinks about it, Ahsoka doesn't know why she hasn't yet. A frown falls upon her face at the thought. Maybe she was still wary of him.

A noise startles her out of her thoughts. An engine most likely based on its deep reverberation. That must be our ride. Finally. Soon enough a vehicle appears in front of her. Ahsoka would be lying if she said she didn't admire it. Sleek, black and fluidly smoothe. The bottom of the vessel barely touched the gravelly entrance. It was like a limousine in length, though the front of the vehicle dipped in almost delicious curves when viewed by the sides where the driver would be. The head of the vehicle curved into a sharp, low arrowhead. 

The engineer in Ahsoka would have fainted at the sight of such a beauty. It was a mesmerising piece of art. Ahsoka didn't realise how low her jaw had dropped until she heard chuckling. 

"I see that you like our ride." Shay said humorously, an amused expression on his face at the sight. He was a light grey, long sleeved shirt and trousers, similar to the style that Obi wan would have worn. Engraved on the hinges of the top were light gold engravings and gold symbols that were spread out over the top.

"It's respectable." She replies with a pout.

"It sure is." He turns back, signalling to some servants to carry their luggage. Shay had, despite Ahsoka's protests, brought her spare clothes and other small items for her stay.

"Don't tell me your still against it." He says, exacerbated at the thought.

"Jedi don't have belongings." Ahsoka persisted, though a part of her would have liked some personal belongings.

"It's not the jedi way." 

"Screw the Jedi way, you're on my side of the Galaxy. The Jedi can't tell you what you can and can't do any longer." He remarks.

"You make it sound like the Jedi are bad people." Ahsoka asks.

A raised eyebrow and an amused expression is her only reply. 

"Are you two done?" Kaylin asks, half joking as she makes her way past them. She was wearing an form fitting long sleeved black robe with an open bottom black skirt that revealed similarly black leggings. Ahsoka noted the curved lightsaber and military belt that it was strapped onto, looking out of place with the rest of her attire.

"We're done." Shay said, his amused expression faltering ever so slightly. The two soon followed Kaylin inside the vehicle.

It was comfortable, obviously designed for comfort than efficiency. The view to the drivers seat was blocked by a black screen, privacy paramount Ahsoka thought. 

As the hovercraft soon took off speedily, Ahsoka found that she was seating opposite the family pairing. Shay was busy looking at some hologram pads, containing who knows what that concerned him and Kaylin was busy looking out the side window blankly. This soon created what would be described as an awkward silence that was filled with awkward tension.

It didn't seem like it was going to change any time soon Ahsoka realised as minutes passed with little change. She resorted to copying Kaylin and look at the scenery.

It seemed... Peaceful she thought. The country side had grass fields that preceded multiple forests, the trees swaying the growing wind. A glance back the way they came informed her of the following bodyguards in some sort of speeder bikes.

Before long, the city became ever larger, the distance decreasing astonishingly. It was quite a sight. Large white walls surrounded the outer city, multiple spire like towers long overhead of them and distant hover cars filling the open space.

They soon passed through the large gate entrance with little trouble, Ahsoka noticing the black and white armoured guard force. Soon they were on the streets of the city ,that for the most part was clean and content. The people walked around their every day lives with no trouble or surprises. Large walls spread through the city, a designed defense against any invaders in case they breached the outer walls. Ahsoka could just make out train like vehicles at the top of these walls, moving people and equipment throughout the city.

It's certainly different but surprisingly, it works very well. 

"It helps move people throughout the multiple districts." Kaylin says, still glancing out the window. "The city has over time been designed to act like one giant circle, so there wouldn't be any advantage given to any invaders." She continues, her eyes glancing at Ahsoka with a subtle accusing gaze.

"Has it worked?" Ahsoka asks, curious. 

"Every time."

"What's the city even called?" Ahsoka asks, only then realising how cooped up she was at the villa.

"Rathcoran." Kaylin says with awe in her voice, briefly furning her head to look at the padawan." The city that never dies." 

Ahsoka can't help but look back out the window, the new information still being processed. Also, Ahsoka almost ashamedly uses it to avoid Kaylins unnerving gaze.

A question emerges from Ahsokas mind, only then having the opportunity to ask it.

"Shay, do you have anyway of finding out who my parents are?" Ahsoka asks almost causally, hiding the fact that she had been obsessing over it for the past few days.

Kaylin, to Ahsoka's surprise, almost looks appalled at the question.

"Ahsoka, you can see Shay is busy can-" she begins.

"Kaylin." Shay reprimands, staring at her briefly in warning." Ahsoka has every right to know about any and all progress about her parents. You know this." Ahsoka was secretly relieved at his words. At least, she thought, Shay will support me about this. Truth be told, this news troubled her greatly. She had never really thought about her parents before, mainly because Plo Koon had found her alone and she had no memories of them. But if one of them came from these people...

It hurts her brain with the amount of possibilities.

"Well," Shay begins, his gaze turning to Ahsoka his face softening as he does so." The problem we have is figuring out who could have gone to your side of the Galaxy in that time period. It was a... Chaotic time so many people may have left. Obviously, since your not human, it's probably just a single parent that came from here. But since we've started 16 years late it's difficult figuring out who left." 

It was rather depressing when he put it into words. Shay knows it too, as he puts a comforting hand on Ahsoka's shoulder. 

"Hey, look at me kid. Trust me when I say that we'll find your parents, whoever they may be." He says, his attempt at reassurance only partially having the desired effect.

Ahsoka just couldn't figure him out. He wanted to kill me before. He mocked me, nearly killed me, cut off a limb from one of my closest friends and has killed dozens of clones. She should feel hatred, or anger or... Something damnit. Even if it's not the Jedi way.

But she doesn't. Atleast not yet. Now he's helping me find my parents, being kind and protecting me from those that would have tortured me and wants to bring peace between them and the Republic. It was just so confusing.

"Thanks, I guess." She says, not sure how to respond.

It was enough apparently. Shay just smiles understandingly and leans back into his seat. Kaylin turns back towards the window.

They remain silent for several minutes before the car stops, Ahsoka realising that they had arrived at their destination. The three quickly move out of the car and Ahsoka is surprised to find a long open pathway in front of them, lined by hundreds of statues, ten paces apart to the sides and in pairs. Each one was different in some way. What caught Ahsoka's attention however was the massive construct that was before her. It was massive, the main base of the temple was erected on a a small hill, the pathway leading up to a large set of stairs. It was a dome shaped building with multiple engravings etched into the walls. Multiple spires and towers sprang all around it, each tower curving inward of itself. It was impressive to say the least.

Shay immediately started walking, Kaylin not far behind, which forces Ahsoka out he daze and she swiftly pursues the two. 

"Who are these people?" Ahsoka asks when she catches up to them. 

"One the left hand side is the past Dal'Kaveen leaders of our people, the greatest of them all, good and bad. On the right are those that have proven themselves as heroes to us in their past lives." Shay responds, not bothering to look back at her.

"The start of the pathway is where it begins. Only those most deserving are honoured this way. Each new statue is added on closer to the temple."

Sure enough, the trio start to pass by all of the statues, the pathway stretching beyond them. 

"I didn't see your statue." Ahsoka inquires, thinking that he was revered.

A brief silence follows, Shay choosing his words carefully.

"No, no you didn't."

"How come?" Ahsoka asks.

"Because I don't deserve one, so there is none to begin with." He concluded, his tone indicating that Ahsoka should stop with the questioning.

Minutes passed as the trio eventually found themselves up the stairs and at the entrance of the temple. Ahsoka soon sees a lone statue, bigger than the others and in the middle of the entrance. It was a man, masked, and kneeling in front of him with his head held high, as if awaiting any new arrivals. In his left hand, was a triangular like object, a holocron of some kind and in his right was a lightsaber, inactive.

"This is a statue of Dal'ka the first, the man who saved our ancestors all those years ago." Shay comments to Ahsoka, the two stopping in their tracks whilst Kaylin waits behind them. He seemingly knew what she was about to ask

"Without him, we wouldn't be here." She can see that Shay admired him him, it was plain to see in the way that he stared at him, hoping that he could amount to his success. 

A sudden noise breaks the conversation. It was Shays communicator as he quickly placed it too his ear after pressing his wrist pad to answer.

Whispers are exhanges, Ahsoka standing respectfully back to not hear.

Shay, she notes, is getting more annoyed by the second. Five minutes pass before he is finished and turns back to the girls.

"Sorry about this but something urgent has just come up, I have to go to my office immediately." He says apologetically, turning to head off into a random direction." Ahsoka you need to get moving or you'll miss your first session." He calls out from behind, speed walking as he does so.

"What session? Where do I go?" She shouts back, ignoring the annoyed stare from Kaylin.

"Kaylin will show you."

The two, surprised by his words, look at each other.

They both groan at the thought.


	29. A Friendly Face

To say that the walk was awkward would have been an understatement.

Kaylin paced ahead, never looking back to see if Ahsoka was keeping up. Ahsoka to her credit, kept pace with the brisk women, her irritation growing.

First she wants to kill me and acts like a lunatic. Then she acts super nice and wanted to be like sisters. Now what? Could she atleast be consistent?

They were walking in a large open hallway, Spartan in appearance but huge in length and the roof was high. Ahsoka believed that if she shouted she would hear an echo.

It was uncomfortable to say the least when they paced past random passerbys. Every single one of them would look shocked when they see me, their eyes and mouths wide, though they never spoke a single word. It was happening with more frequency and Ahsoka was worried that they would soon draw a crowd.

"I have a bad feeling about this." She mutters to herself.

"What?" Kaylin asks with a sigh and an eye roll.

"Nothing." Ahsoka replies, far too fast for her own liking. Kaylin looks back at her for a second before making a hmm noise in her throat and resuming her pace.

Ahsoka however grew annoyed with the older female.

That's it.

"What's your problem? You have been acting off for the entire day." Ahsoka accuses, her voice harsher than expected.

"Excuse me," Kaylin asks "my problem?" 

"Yeah your problem. What happened to 'ooh let me give you a grand tour Ahsoka?'" Ahsoka asks, mocking her entourage.

"That was me being polite, little girl." She responds.

"Oh and what do you really think about me then? Huh? Go on I'm a big girl I'll manage your criticism." Ahsoka demands, closing the distance between the two. They had stopped walking now, having apparently reached their destination in the form of a small, mundane wooden door. It was both nameless and unremarkable.

"I think that your a security risk!" Kaylin seethes, anger twisting her once beautiful face. "You've been nothing but trouble since I've met you."

"Well who started that when you boarded my ship!" 

"Who arrived in our territory on said ship in the first place!" The two were gaining in height and volume, their conversation now open for all to see. They were gaining a crowd too. A group of teenagers, all dressed in different types of robes and clothes, were watching in both shock and excitement.

"Because you killed hundreds of innocent men!" Ahsoka shouted. She was beyond furious at this point. In hindsight she would be disgusted with how badly her emotions had gotten the best of her but at this point, she didn't really care.

"When they tried to kill ours!" Kaylin shrieked, eyes blazing. 

"That's not the point-" Ahsoka stammered, her sentence cut off.

"That's exactly the point! You Jedi just love to claim how great you are and how you 'bring the peace'. What, the peace that is deaths cold touch?" Kaylin replies, and she grows quieter and colder. That terrified Ahsoka more than her outburst.

"Are you a peace keeper, Ahsoka? I doubt it, I can see the spirit of battle in your eyes, the thirst for it, don't deny it you know it's there." She accuses

"I do not." Ahsoka said, partly shocked at how much the comment hits true.

"Really? Your threw a fucking fighter craft at my father, blowing him up in the process! If he was anyone else he would have been dead!" Kaylin shouted, her voice quivering at the last sentence and Ahsoka could see the small tear in the corner of her eye.

"I-"

"Kaylin, whats going on here?" A soft, frail voice calls out, and the two arguers turn to look at the door.

Standing in the half open door was an old women, probably in her seventies, judging by the grey hair and cane that she was leaning on. She wore a simple dress, green and long in length. But the most interesting aspect of her was her face. She had a frail wrinkled face but she had a comforting feel to her. She was breathing heavily and was rubbing her back in pain.

"Lyssa, you shouldn't be standing." Kaylin says,horrified, all sense of hostilities from her face and voice gone as she went to help the old women. 

Lyssa however, merely raised an open hand, stopping her.

"I'm not that frail and weak that a mere walk to the door will put me in a coffin dear." Lyssa states, chuckling at her own comment.

Her head turns to Ahsoka and what could be described as the warmest smile Ahsoka had ever seen from a stranger covered her face.

"You must be Ahsoka Tano. It's a pleasure to meet you my dear. You look better than I thought when I was told about you and I mean that as a compliment." She states with a smile and goes to grasp Ahsoka's hand, the padawan doing the same.

"Kaylin you can go now dear, Ahsoka is where she needs to be." She says before turning to the group of watchers, her smile momentarily missing.

"As for the rest of you; it would be a shame if I have to send you all around the temple as punishment for eavesdropping." She calls out, her voice stern like a teacher.

The group, now glaring daggers at Ahsoka, all quickly depart.

"But Lyssa-" Kaylin begins, only to be cut off when Lyssa pulls Ahsoka into the room and promptly shuts the door on her.

They stay still for a few seconds, Ahsoka now in the middle of the room and Lyssa near the door, listening. She waits until she hears soft footsteps leave before she turns her full attention to Ahsoka.

"Dear could you help me to my chair? The green one. My back makes any normal thing take years." Lyssa asks, chuckling at her own joke. 

"Of course." Ahsoka says, more than ready to assist the kind women. Ahsoka couldn't help but think that this lady was the kindest person she has met in a very long, not taking into account her masters and the clones, of course.

Taking the left arm of Lyssa within her own, Ahsoka slowly guided the elder to her chair, fully examining the room for the first time. It was a small room, that was without question. A low roof soon made Ahsoka wonder why this lovely women was in such a cramped place. It was lively though, she would admit. The floor had a worn out carpet, the multiple variations of blue and green faded but still prominent. There were two chairs, one opposite the other behind a low wooden table. One was a tall, regal yet mundane looking armchair, the green faint. The other was a smaller yet cushier looking armchair, wide in appearance. It's sky blue made it look like it was still new, despite the tears and cracks it had suffered over the years. Their was a wide window however on the right of the chairs, welcoming in the sight of the lively city outside.

Gently, Ahsoka helped Lyssa lower herself into her chair, the cane being placed by its side. She could see the look of relief on her face, Lyssa closing her eyes, and wasn't surprised when a soft sigh was made. 

Ahsoka soon turns and sat on the blue armchair, relaxing into it herself as her emotionally drained body relaxed.

"I love this chair." Ahsoka mutters with happiness, mimicking Lyssa with her expression and sigh. A chuckle soon sounded.

"I'm glad you do my dear. Would you like something to drink?" Lyssa asked, waving a lazy arm to the cups and kettle resting on the table. 

"No thank you." Ahsoka replied, not wanting to overextend her welcome.

"Alright then. My name is Lyssa if you weren't aware dear. I guess your wondering why you've been sent to me little one." Lyssa said, her words slow but assured. Ahsoka nodded.

"Well, whilst Shay is getting some of his best scientists to see if they can find a match from your DNA, he asked me to see if I could help you in my own, special way." She says with a smile. 

"What way exactly?" Ahsoka asks, slightly wary of this information. "Oh it's nothing more than searching your memory." 

"How?" 

"The two of us will connect ourself to each other and the force and, with my guidance, the two of us will see if you can remember anything about your past." Lyssa explains calmly.

"How do I know if this is a trick to know what information I have in my head." Ahsoka asks, suspicion tinting the sentence.

"You are the one who will be in control Ahsoka, not I. I'm merely here to show you how and to guide you in it. Nothing more." Lyssa replies patiently.

Ahsoka thought it over for a couple of minutes. Lyssa simply sat and waited. I need to find out what happened, why they left, who they were? I need to know.

Ahsoka nodded her consent.

"Excellent dear. Now relax, close your eyes. Reach out into the force as if it were a rope." Lyssa ordered, her voice still kind but now taking on something more. Experience.

Ahsoka closed her eyes and breathed.

In and out. She didn't know how long she was like that but eventually, something changed. 

She reached for it, a strange hand follows her movements, filled with bright light that radiated from it. It grew darker and ahsoka couldn't help but think about how lonely it is in the force. There in a distance, she soon noticed it. A light slowly approached, flickering in and out. It was nothing more but a mere flame, similar to a star. Somehow Ahsoka knew it, it seemed... familiar. It was here to help, She could tell. The force never lies.

The flame suddenly flared out, blinding Ahsoka as she closed her eyes to spare herself from its blaze. After several seconds, the light dulled, allowing Ahsoka to open her eyes again. 

She was in a field of grass. The soil was beneath her feet, the moist earth clinging to her. She was running, she didn't know why. Laughing too. Carefree and happy. Something Ahsoka hasn't felt in a long time. There was a reason for the running Ahsoka realised. A destination. Ahsoka could see something in the distance. It was merely a black smudge in the distance but Ahsoka just knew.

It was home.

Darkness consumed her. It started with dark cracks over the field, as if it were a painting. More and more cracks spread until darkness clouded her vision. She opened her eyes and sitting in front of her was Lyssa once again, noticeably more tired and drained, based on the sweat lingering onto her face. She was still smiling however, which took some of the worry that Ahsoka was starts to harbour.

"What happened? I-I was starting to see something." Ahsoka asked, confusion clear in her voice. She was suddenly extremely tired but didn't know why.

Lyssa merely gives a gentle smile before lazily waving a hand to the window, drawing Ahsoka's attention towards it. What was before clear blue skies was now dark with only the lights of the city to breathe life to the world.

"I'm afraid we must end it here child. We're both exhausted and must gain some much needed rest." She replies, sighing as she spoke.

Ahsoka would have protested if the fat"Go on now dear, Rhom is waiting for you outside. You'll need your rest when you meet your peers." She states.igue that she was feeling wasn't as prominent. It was as if her bones had suddenly gained tonnes of weight, slowing her movements down indefinitely.

"Oh they're gonna love me." Ahsoka sarcastically states, earning a chuckle from Lyssa.

"Oh I bet they will. After your little argument I bet they'll make your life rather difficult for the foreseeable future." Lyssa says, pouring some type of drink into her cup.

Ahsoka hesitated. "Will they be giving you any trouble Lyssa? You did put a stop to it." She asks, worry for the kind lady pushing through her words.

"My dear, they are welcome to try. Considering I taught both Shay and his brother everything they knew back in my day, I doubt Shay would be happy with their... Harassment." Lyssa says with wink, a smile of relief growing in Ahsoka's face.

"Now go, dear." She says with a shooing movement "you need your rest."

Ahsoka steadily moves to the door, not wanting to fall from exhaustion. " I'm glad to have met you Lyssa." Ahsoka says, briefly looking back to the sitting elder.

"As I am to have met you Ahsoka." She replies with a smile.

And after that, Ahsoka was gone.


	30. Outcast

The air was harsh and cold upon Ahsokas face. She couldn’t help but wonder if the the planet herself was trying to attack the ‘invader’ in any way it can. It wouldn’t be surprising, considering the reaction she received from those all around her.  
She had been woken early in the morning by one of the acolytes in the temple. He had arrived to take her to the training grounds where she will be taught by a man called Hosek Raan. It didn’t take long for her to makp e her way to the grounds, the acolytes polite enough to avoid staring at her... unique features. That politeness was nowhere to be found here.  
The grounds were nothing more than barren grounds that encompassed dust and several viewing stands for any watchers around each square. The grounds had been divided up into squares, more than she could count if she had the time to. Most were empty upon inspection but some were being used by trainees, either in full groups of 30 or just several pairs of warriors, sparring with either lightsaber or other tools in hand.  
It was impressive to say the least. These people could outmatch the Jedi if they wanted to, Ahsoka thought. Stop it! You’re suppose to be fighting for peace. Though, these people don’t look like they want peace. She mentally groaned at the thought.  
None of the trainees around her were discreet in their gaze. Some looked at her with curiosity whilst others, unfortunately, in disgust. She was the first to arrive in her group, left to her own devices as she waited for their arrival. It felt like ages until the first of the group started to arrive, surprised at the sight of her. From then on it became a routine for every new attendee to simply watch for several seconds before resuming what they had set out to do. She noticed that they all wore similar training gear, brown leather worn into white and grey robes, short sleeved and designed for practicality. Now she was forced to stand alone and pretend that she wasn’t aware of their stares as they chatted in groups amongst themselves. It was a weird feeling, never before having felt such stares simply because of how she looked. Ahsoka wasn’t sure what to make of it.  
The trainees started to stiffen Ahsoka realised, their eyes drawn to something behind her. A voice broke out, his voice tinged with an artificial boom.   
“Everyone get in line, now! If anyone is not in line by the time I get there, you will be running around the training grounds until I see limbs fall off!”  
Ahsoka turned to face this voice, ignoring the panicked scrambling of the other trainees around her. The man was smaller than what she initially thought, probably only a couple of inches taller than Ahsoka. It was clear however, that he didn’t need the height to be intimidating.  
The man had the look of madness and death. Near half of his body and face was covered with cybernetics, a dull grey in colour. His entire right side had been replaced with robotic parts, his right arm in particular had been replaced with a human shaped design. The right side of of his chest and shoulder had been replaced as well, left bare in contrast to his simple black tunic. the only untouched part of his head was the left side of his face, his entire nose and mouth covered. Scarred tissue had slightly edged past his mask and onto his brown shaded skin. What space was left of his bald head was covered with strange symbols, cult like in design, tattooed over his head and cheek.   
He was intense, radiating both power and an aura of intimidation around his very being. His left eye, yellow in colour, with his right eye covered with a yellow slit. Ahsoka quickly realised that his eye was trained solely on her.  
“Saedrin! Get your brother in line now or you’ll both be running!” He warned, his eyes not once leaving Ahsoka, who was quickly becoming the only one to have not fallen in line.  
It wasn’t like Ahsoka was deliberately trying to be defiant or annoy the man, but she wanted to see what footing the two were on. That and she didn’t want him to think he can treat her like dirt.  
It was that reason why she had straightened herself at his approach, alone now in the square and with the man now mere inches from her face.  
“You’re strong Jedi, I can tell,” He notes, studying her “Good. You’ll need to be with these lot.”   
His voice, artificial but still retaining hints of humanity, was but a whisper. He spoke with humour, as if the idea of his group turning on her apparently a pleasant thought.  
“Know that I shall treat you fairly, like anyone else. Though they will say I am unfair.” He chuckled, a harsh and bitter sound escaping his lips, which is silenced quickly.  
“I warn you Jedi, if you try anything that endangers my students, then I will end it. Permanently.”   
His eye is intense with its glare, waiting to see her reaction.   
“I understand.” Ahsoka replies, holding the mans gaze.  
He nods once and then motions for Ahsoka to get in line. She obliged. Ahsoka kept her head high and her back straight as she walked to the end of the line, ignoring the stares from the rest of the students.  
“To those that don’t know me, I am Battle Master Hosek Raan. I will teach you how to wage war, to wage war with honour and to face those who have none.”   
Ahsoka realised then how these strange people seemed to have a proficiency in battle. They were trained specifically with war in mind, whilst Jedi were peacekeepers who were trained to defend themselves if needed. It was a worrying thought, if she couldn’t help bring peace between these people and the Republic.  
“We have a Jedi among us, Ahsoka Tano is her name. Step forth child and face us.” He spoke bluntly, Ahsoka realising that he wanted to get the fact she was a Jedi out of the way.  
“Students, this Jedi was part of the force that we fought in first contact. She was a Commander of the Galactic Republic.” Raan was doing this deliberately she knew, he wanted them angry. He wanted them to hate.  
“Some of you will now face her in combat, to know what it is like facing an experienced warrior. Del Fin, pick four others and get ready to fight.” Raan ignored the surprised stare of Ahsoka, pretending to be oblivious.  
Wonderful, Ahsoka thought, he wants to punish me.  
“Does anyone want to help Jedi Tano defend herself?” Raan asked, knowing the outcome.  
Ahsoka watched as no one from the line stepped forward to aid her. She turned then, feeling the presence of the five students armed with wooden training swords awaiting her.  
A movement from the line caught the edge of her sight, Ahsoka immediately turning to see who had caused it. A tall boy, easily taller than Ahsoka and everyone else, took a step forward. Ahsoka could see on his face, youthful and surprisingly innocent in contrast to the others, the need to help her. The Padawan began to hope before a hand tugged on the boys arm, the hand belonging to a boy standing next to him, and through a stare alone he brought the giant back in line. His guilty expression was obvious but he stayed still after that. Ahsokas hope sank.  
She turned back to face her new training partners.   
“Do I have a weapon?” She asked, fearing the answer.  
“Yes,” Raan said, a smile obvious even behind his mask, “though you’ll need to get it from your new friends. Begin!”  
They came at her with speed and anger. The one called Del Fin lead the way, his short stylised black hair flowing past him, aiming low for her feet whilst another went high. Ahsoka rolled to the left of Del Fin before executing a series of fast punches directly into his ribs, knocking the air out from his body. Before she could take his training weapon however, Ahsoka felt her right leg buckle from a precise strike to her knee. Not allowing herself to lose the initiative, Ahsoka turns in a low arc before wrapping her left leg on the female attackers outstretched arm and pulls. The girl quickly loses her footing and is flipped past Ahsoka and into the path of a male student, causing both to crash to the ground with a huff.  
Grabbing the girls weapon, Ahsoka just barely is able to block the incoming overhead strike from a muscular girl, the power of the blow sending vibrations into Ahsokas hand. Blocking several quick strikes from all directions from the warrior, Ahsoka realised that whilst she doesn’t have the power advantage, she easily takes the speed advantage. The Padawan stepped into the next strike, avoiding it due to her close proximity, before quickly hitting pinpoint strikes into the girls chest. A leg sweep took the girl off her feet, though Ahsoka soon found herself surrounded by the other students and soon found herself defending herself from all sides.  
Ahsoka knew that it was a losing battle, she was surrounded and being attacked from all sides and was growing tired from having to constantly change directions. The climax came courtesy of Del Fin. The student, with a dirty grin on his face, uses the force to whip dust directly into Ahsokas face, blinding her and leaving her as easy prey for the swift and numerous strikes from the other students. Ahsoka fell to her knees, weakly defending herself as best she could from their vicious assault. A full on strike to her face drew blood.  
Enough of this!  
Ahsoka, angry and in pain, violently pushed her attackers away with the force. The students as if thrown by a large breeze fell to the ground sharply, several steps away. They quickly started to get back up to attack once again before a lone voice echoed across the grounds.  
“Enough! This sparring session is over.” Raan called out, his voice loud and in no mood for discussion.  
Ahsoka spat blood out of her mouth, her breath shaky as she spoke. “You teach your students to pull dirty tricks? I thought you said you would wage war honourably?” She was fuming as she cautiously got back to her feet.  
Raan was absolute in his words. “You of all people should know that not everyone will be honourable in battle. You should have prepared yourself to deal with it.” Del Fin, only just getting up to go his feet had a toothy grin on his face, something that Raan quickly got rid of.  
“You think you were clever boy?” Raan spoke as he rounded on the arrogant student, “You had a five against one advantage as well as having weapons whilst the Jedi had none of her own. Yet she has beaten you still. Only a dirty trick granted you victory.”  
Del Fin spoke in anger, his voice melodic despite this. “So? You said it yourself Master Raan, sometimes you should take out the enemy,” he hammered the last word out, gaze pointedly at Ahsoka, “dirty.”  
Raan was not amused. “Dirty tactics are used depending on the right situation and the enemy. They are not used because of you and your fellow students lack of ability.” He was staring daggers at the boy, Del Fin shrinking upon every word and the rest of the class grimacing from the sides.   
“You’ve proven nothing but your own lack of skill. What would your brother think of you now?”  
Raan walked away, ignoring the shocked and angry look that Del Fin was giving him.   
He turned to the rest of the class.  
“Ahsoka Tano will run five laps around the entire training grounds for her failures and mistakes.” Ahsoka grimaced at the thought. I’m getting punished for being ganged up on.  
“The others will run ten laps for their mistakes. Let this be a reminder of what failure brings.”  
Well, Ahsoka thought with a smirk, it could have been worst.  
“Everyone else, get a sparring partner and   
begin one on one combat.” Raan walked to Ahsoka, ignoring the stares and moans of the other students upon his announcement.  
“Go to the medical officer to get checked out before you start your laps girl. Back the way you came, first door on the right.”  
Ahsoka merely nodded and started to walk away, still catching her breath from the beating her body had taken.  
“Girl, you did good. But keep an eye on your right side. When you’re alone, fight alone. There won’t be anyone there to watch your flanks.”   
Ahsoka nodded, feeling a mixture of pride and sadness from his words before walking away from the training grounds.


End file.
